Disabled Single Mother and Grandmother Seeks Grant Money For Debt Relief

by Terri Otes
(Essex, Maryland, USA)

I am a 49-year-old single mother and grandmother. I'm struggling financially and looking for grant money or anything really for debt relief.

I live in Baltimore MD and have two children and one grandchild who live with me. I have several health problems that have had me walking with a cane since 2003.

Last year I was approved for a motorized scooter to help me get around my home. However I cannot leave my home with the chair because I do not have a ramp from my deck to the ground.

I also cannot afford to purchase a trailer for the chair to attach to my daughters car. My health is getting progressively worse without any real hope of improving.

I would like to be able to leave my home to attend functions at my son's school. He is only 13 and I feel like I am not a good mother to him because I have been disabled since he was seven and have not been able to participate in activities with him like I did with my 21-year-old daughter.

I also have a two-year-old granddaughter who lives with me and I want to be an active participant in her life outside of our house.

My daughter is attending college full-time. She wants to be able to make enough money to help me out in the future, but for now things are tough.

I have to make a choice each month whether to pay bills such as electricity and medicine or buy food for the household. I usually neglect to get my medicine and do not pay my electric bill.

Right now I have a $2660 electric bill with a turn-off notice on its way. I do not know how I am going to pay it. I just applied for energy assistance. I hope it comes through for me.

My co-payments for my medicine can run as high as $300 a month. When I do not fill my prescriptions I obviously get worse.

I can't afford to get my eyeglasses, which I lost in November of 2009, and I cannot come up with the $356 payment to get new ones. That is going through the insurance. They do not pay for the progressive bifocals that I wear.

I would just like to get enough money to get myself out of debt and be mobile. I want to feel like a productive mother and grandmother instead of feeling like they would be better off without me around.

It is very depressing to have these worries every day. I sometimes have a hard time getting out of bed because I know all the problems I am going to face.

I am not asking anyone to pity me. I am only asking for help to get on my feet financially and to be able to access the outside world.

I can walk to the car with my cane if I take several pain pills but it is still difficult. Then I have to worry about how I am going to get around the store I am going to; if they do not have a scooter available for me I have to leave.

My daughter is forced to do most of my shopping for me now, which I wouldn't mind so much but I like to be able to do things for myself. My daughter has a very busy schedule attending college full-time, working part-time and raising a two year old.

I care for my granddaughter while my daughter goes to work and school with the help of my son after school and in evenings.