I received a letter from a cancer patient asking about the “Change We Can Believe in”. She is one of many people wondering what had happened to the promises made and the promises kept by political candidates. It’s a hard luck story of someone that had done everything right only to see so much go wrong. Following is the letter:

My name is Brenda Lee of Georgia. I always felt I had been living a responsible life and had no fears regarding my future. I have no credit card debt, I own my own vehicle and for the past eight years I have been on the path to owning a home I could easily afford.

In the past I often augmented my mortgage payments with two or three additional principal payments.  My goal was to pay for my home in 15 years or less. Before the economy spiraled out of control I had accumulated some sizable equity. Additionally, I typically keep six months to a year’s reserve of cash on hand for emergencies. You would think this would make me almost recession proof. Not so.

My business, a construction company, fell victim, like so many others, to the Georgia drought and then the downturn in the housing industry. It actually began experiencing serious shortfalls before November of 2007. It became obvious things were going to get worse.   In March of 2008 I returned to work for the same owner of the Chevrolet dealership I had left fifteen years ago.

My construction company was not producing regular work or projects. In April of 2008 my husband of 8 years went to work at a pre-stressed concrete company. That change was short lived whereas, in August of 2008 he was given a medical leave of absence from his employer.  Car sales were plummeting and to ad insult to injury, in January of this year I was diagnosed with cancer. I am currently being treated with chemo and radiation. I am scheduled for surgery in May.    

We were, for 17 months, just meeting our financial obligations without seeking government aid of any sort before we began losing ground. Setting his pride aside my husband applied for any type of employment – even minimum wage entry positions in the fast food industry but to no avail. Reluctantly he signed up for food stamps and unemployment. I am currently on disability.

I applied for and received two unsecured loans to rescue my home from foreclosure back in March of 2008. I had not been diagnosed with cancer at that time so I viewed these loans as my mini bailout so to speak.   Before the cancer there was nothing on the horizon that would have indicated additional problems.

My lender, in the spirit of “wanting to work with me” charged me 2,500.00 upfront and billed me 1,154.00 for five months to catch up. I met their asinine requirements and saved my home.  

Now medical co-pay bills and insurance bills as well as basic living expenses consume the majority of our income. We no longer have cash reserves.   We can’t even consider renting as an option. My Beacon score has fallen in the past year where refinancing may require divine intervention or Change We Can Believe In. 

We have never lived foolishly or spent money we did not have. My property is to go into foreclosure again due to lost income due to the combination of the economic contraction and our health requirements.

I have written to our two Senators as well as an Economic Professor, of the University of Pennsylvania.   I have been reading about reverse mortgages and equity release options hoping to find a solution there. Thus far, no one has answered my inquiries. 

My husband is 57 years of age and with exception of his hernia, he is in extremely good health. I am 45 years old and my cancer seems to be responding favorably to chemo and radiation treatments. After my cancer is operated on in May, hopefully this health issue will be reduced to nothing more than a bump in the road and I can return to work full time.  

What we find particularly discouraging is we have been unable to find any programs to assist homeowners that could have otherwise weathered this downturn were it not for medical concerns. 

I have spoken with several Countrywide associates. Some have been kind while some have been rather rude but none, thus far, none have been helpful. They refuse to accept full or partial mortgage payments and the last suggestion I received from my lender was: “wait to see what this Obama thing will do”.   As it turns out, it does nothing and now my mortgage company wants me in the street. Literally. It doesn’t make sense. I still have over 30K in equity in my home and they refuse to work with me.

Even though I initially tried to send my full mortgage payments in they insisted they could not accept them and mailed the checks back to me. As silly as that may sound, it is true. Their reasoning was due to my having failed to meet several payments, even though I was getting back on my feet financially, they couldn’t apply the money to my account.

I am at my wits end. We have no family to fall back on. While it is very important for me to keep my home, if I fail to do so we have absolutely no place to go.   I know there is nothing you can do personally, but if you could, please let your readers know that this “Change We Can Believe In” isn’t all it is touted to be.

Respectfully,

Brenda Lee.