Single Mother of Two Disabled Sons Needing Disability Assistance

by Rose Scheibelhut
(South Bend, IN, USA)

I'm a 62-year-old single mother of two disabled men needing disability assistance. They're terrific men who have spent their lives helping our whole family of seven at one time or another.

They are both disabled now and on SSI and in need of help themselves. The SSI just covers the day-to-day needs.

My oldest son Steve who is 45 is paralyzed from the waist down. He has tried really hard to get the things he needs. He got a hand-operated old van, thinking he could fix it.

But it just has too much wrong with it. If we could get it replaced with one he could drive it would really help. He has no transportation at all now. He lives in the country so it is hard for him to get to the Doctor and stores.

He would also like to put a furnace, floor and repairs in his barn so that he can make a woodworking and crafts shop. He wants to have solar and turbine power to help him lower his bills so that he can pay more on his taxes for the land he owns.

My second son Tom, who is 43 and lives with me, has diabetes, kidney failure, and is losing his sight. He goes to dialysis three times a week. We have a 1989 full-size van but it is going to need a lot of repair soon. His health is failing so it is harder for him to get in and out of it. We are in need of a wheelchair van in the near future.

Last December we rented a building with the option to buy, hoping we could stop wasting our money on rent. But I got laid off last week. So I don't know what is going to happen.

Steve lives in Michigan and Tom and I live in Indiana. If this single mother of two disabled men needing disability assistance could get some help, it would be such a godsend for us all! It would be the only good thing that has happened to us in the last 10 years.