Disabled Grandfather Raising Two Handicapped Grandchildren Needs Government Grant Money
by Richard Trannum
I am raising two handicapped grandchildren; one is legally blind and the other one has what doctors call delayed frontal global development, pretty much cerebral palsy. They are both six years old. My wife left me (us) in July and her mental disability was our main income. I receive S.S.I. benefits for myself of $118 a month; the severely handicapped grandchild receives $360 a month S.S.I. Also I receive $260 a month from the state as aid to the disabled. We have no vehicle for transportation and so miss doctors appointments a lot and as a result have children's services investigate us for not making appointments for the kids. My rent is on the low side for Alaska. Our three-bedroom unit costs $1050 a month. Often we have no food let alone the diets that I need for my illness and special diet for my grandbaby. Her formula costs over a thousand a month and is covered by the state. We need a wheelchair accessible van for my baby and her appointments education physical therapy and to get out. She has only been to doctors in all her six years. She has never been in a store, seen a parade or the beauty of outdoors away from streets, sidewalks and houses. She has seen nothing, gone nowhere or done anything outside because of no transportation. I would like to give and share good memories and experiences with my grandbabies before I die. I want them to remember me. I love them so much and am so helpless. I cry over what we may never feel see or experience. Their hard time is yet to be lived. That will be when I die and they are without me. Just one grant in my lifetime is all I ask so that I can improve our situation and get the special transportation my grand daughter needs. This would make more difference than anything we have ever experienced and last a lifetime and who knows the benefits to these children as well as me. Please help.
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