My Father was in the Air force for 22 years and my mother's health care has been paid for to this day and she is in her 70's, she and my father are covered by TriCare, my parents have never gone without health care benefits from the AF and due to this, my parents are living long healthy lives, even though my father has had 3 different cancers, due to his health care benefit they caught all of them early so he's beat all 3 Cancers, so far....
I'm so sorry about what your family has gone through and although I've had a fairly 'charmed' life, we too have gone through some periods of very hard luck as well, and you are right, you do what you have to do....
I have not had nearly the struggles that you have had Sheila, with your son's illness, and your husband being unemployed for 3 years and all the other hard times you've gone through....and NOT ONCE have I ever thought you were some lowlife scum of the earth loser as many on the right seem to think about people who have gone through struggles or people that are making minimum wage....
I have a gift of empathy, I can feel what others feel....some say this is not a gift and that it only brings a person down, when they have this ability and I admit, I am sad a lot, not for me, but for others and yes, my husband and I do know our neighbors and would help our neighbors if and when they needed help, and they too have helped us as well....
and here in Maine, people are different, it's such a small community of people, we all help each other...many have no health insurance at all here, it's just unaffordable, about $12,000 a year now per person, when people in maine are lucky to make 25k a year per family...most are farmers or lobstermen where I live...but when anybody is sick with cancer or their house burned down with no insurance or the cripled woman down the street needs a ramp to go up to her house, we all have a collection to give to these people...we have coat drives for the kids, and canned food drives for the foodbanks and whenever someone is in need, our local news covers it and gives the number to call so we can donate or help....
THIS IS WHY I LOVE LIVING HERE, I've never ever, in my whole life lived in a situation where everyone knows everybody, and they all watch each others back....It is God's land here, poor and all, these people are lovely....and the hardest working people I have ever met, from dawn to dusk, they are working....
My husband and I have also supported my husband's brother and family for years....from when his brother was in Seminary, we paid for his school, to when he married and had my nieces and struggling while trying to find a Minister's job, we paid for their rent, and when their only car broke down, we gave them a used car....
With his other nephew, who was born to his crack head and prostitute sister, we help pay for his rearing and with his college....my very poor mother and father in law actually were raising him, his sister was no where to be found, and my nephew's father was in jail....but he turned out to be a fine young man regardless of what his parents were, and is a firefighter now for Tampa, plus he runs his own landscape business to make extra money....he's a clean ace too....we are very proud of him.
So Please don't think I don't know how just one thing, when people are living on the edge of existence, can throw them in to turmoil and more and more struggles as each day goes by....it's like dominos falling and their is no stopping it when it happens...
and as poor as people are here in Maine, Maine was still rated the Number 1 most peaceful State to live, this year!
the sign coming in to the state reads, "Maine, the Way Life Should Be"
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