Need Government Housing And Transportation Grants To Rescue My Family And Me

by Vanessam Ousley
(Norwalk, OH, USA)

Now disabled, I need government housing and transportation grants to rescue my family and me. Just over seven years ago my life changed in a flash and I had to learn how to relive my entire life at the age of twenty-two years old when most young adults are just beginning their adult lives. Six days after my twenty-second birthday I was in a car accident. A drunk driver ran a stop sign and struck the car I was driving.

At the time of the accident I was pregnant with my son Keegan who is now six years old. I went into premature labor due to the accident and almost lost my son. He was born eight weeks early. He was not breathing nor did he have a heartbeat. But thanks to the wonderful doctors at the hospital they saved his life. I thank God for him every day. He is my angel and the reason I fight for my life every day.

As a result of the accident I was left disabled. I cannot dress myself or take care of my son or myself. So we have to live with my parents. I suffer from lumbar disk herniations, arthritis in my lumbar spine, pinched nerves, lower lumbar disk disease, spinal stenosis, and now four back surgeries later I have two 13-inch rods in my lumbar spine with screws, pins and clips. They are already talking about the fifth surgery to put more rods in my back.

I also suffer with severe nerve damage that causes me to fall down without warning. I am in severe pain every day of my life. There is not a day that goes by that I do not cry because of the pain that I am in. I have been learning how to live with the pain because I have been doing it for so long.

I have to use a walker to get around the house to help keep me from falling down. But I can only stand for less than two minutes at a time. Anything longer than that and I have to be in a wheelchair. I had a manual wheelchair but it is too much work for people to push me all the time, so my doctor got me a power wheelchair and it is really nice but we do not have the money to buy a lift for the van so I am unable to go anywhere.

So I mostly stay home. I am unable to go places. I need the grant money to purchase a lift for the van so that I am able to leave my house and enjoy my life. I would love to finally be able to take my son to the zoo. Second my wheelchair won’t even fit in and out of the house and we don’t have a ramp.

So my dad lifts this gigantic chair in and out of the house. I need a grant to make the adjustments to the house so that I can make my life a little easier and a little easier for my parents who have to load and unload my wheelchair. My mom is 55 years old and my dad is 63. They are getting up in the years and I need help making their lives easier so they can take care of me. I wouldn’t have anything if it weren't for my parents. I love my parents with every beat of my heart.

But I am also writing requesting grant money to help me dig my family and myself out of the debt that I have put everybody in. I have not been able to work since the day after the accident. My parents and my younger sister have done everything they possibly can to take care of my son and me over the past seven years and they just can’t do it anymore by themselves.

My parents had to refinance their house to pay off my car because I was unable to work to pay the payments. We have used all of our savings including my dad’s 401K to stay above water. My parents are about to lose our house now. Then we are going to be out on the street.

My disability was finally approved in December of 2008 but it doesn’t seem to matter. With all the past bills and medical bills and medications there is nothing left for anything else. We don’t even have enough money to buy groceries. We haven’t been able to buy groceries in about four months.

I am not asking for a lot of money. I am just asking for enough to buy a lift and make a few adjustments to our house to make our lives a little easier. I would also be very grateful if we could save our house. With everything I have been through over the past seven years it would be nice to have a little of the stress lifted off of our shoulders.

My family is the type of family that would give the clothes off their backs to someone who needed it. If we only had one dollar left in our pocket and someone else needed it we would give it to them. Each Christmas my mom baked cookies, fudge and buckeyes and then we used the profits to take my son shopping and pick out toys for toys for tots every year.

That is how I taught my son that it is better to give then receive. But this year if I don’t put my son on the toys for tots list he isn’t going to get anything for Christmas. We have always been good people and all I am asking for is a break. My family would be so grateful for government housing and transportation grants or really any help that we can get.