Good Neighbors Fund

Donation form

• Contribute to the Good Neighbors Fund online

About the Good Neighbors Fund

• Learn more about the fund, RAM and who it serves

Previous Good Neighbors Fund stories

• Good Neighbors Fund passes 2010 collection total
• Good Neighbors total ahead of last year's
• Still time to get a cookbook
• Mom wishes for a steady job
• Woman, 93, loves to care for younger people

Total amount raised

As of today...

High blood pressure runs in her family, but Louise, 54, who asked that her name not be used for this story, said she was still taken by surprise the day in September when her nose began to bleed and wouldn't stop.

Because she doesn't have a car or money for a cab, she said, she had to walk more than 18 blocks from her Roanoke neighborhood to a hospital emergency room. There, she was told her blood pressure was dangerously high, a condition she had seen in both of her parents, she said.

Louise said she was kept there for observation, given medication and told that she could return to work only if she found a job that was not physically strenuous.

Louise could not return to her job, and the stress continued to pile up. Shortly after she became unemployed, Louise's husband died in late October, leaving her the sole caretaker of her two young grandsons. They have lived with her for about five years, she said.

Their mother "went to work one day and just didn't come back. We don't even know where she is," she said, adding that father doesn't help out.

WORKING: Louise got her first job at age 14 as an assistant in a church day care. Since then, she has done customer service, factory work, housekeeping and nursing.

"I've done a little bit of everything," Louise said. "I'm not afraid to do anything."

But lately, finding work has been difficult. She blames some of her problems on the economy.

"A lot of people are looking for jobs. They're scared. They don't know what to expect."

She said the biggest obstacle to her employment is the lack of transportation. She'd like to work for a temporary agency, she said, but "they're just too far out. They're not on the bus lines."

She also needs a job that will allow her to be home when the boys are out of school. One child has a medical issue that often requires her to pick him up and take him home before the school day is over. "He can't be home by himself," she said.

AT RAM: "Things were always tight" for Louise and her family before she lost her job and her husband, she said, "but we made it." The family received no assistance aside from Temporary Assistance to Needy Families for the children and food stamps. Unfortunately, "the more you work, the more your food stamps get cut back," she said.

But in October, Louise missed an appointment at Roanoke's Social Services department and was dropped from the TANF program. She appealed and was reinstated in November, but by then she was behind on her rent, she said, and had received a disconnect notice from the electric company. When she went back to social services, she was told they couldn't help, but a caseworker gave her a pamphlet listing local charities.

She went to Roanoke Area Ministries, where she was given a grant from the Emergency Financial Assistance Program, which is supported by The Roanoke Times' Good Neighbors Fund.

Aside from the benefits she receives for the children, it was the first time she had to ask for help, Louise said.

"I fell on hard times," she said. RAM was able to give her part of the money and the rest came from one of her children. They are all grown, she said and have families of their own, but they help her whenever they can. Her landlord has been understanding about the back rent, she said, and will let her pay it off a little at a time.

"If it wasn't for my grandchildren, I wouldn't have done it," she said about asking for help. "If it was just me, I would have waited until I caught up. But I can't let them sit around in the dark."

THE FUTURE: Louise said she feels well enough to work when the right job comes long, but she is worried about providing Christmas gifts for the children. Luckily they aren't picky and don't mind wearing thrift store clothes, and don't complain about not having luxuries such as cable television.

"They don't want much," she said. Expensive video games are completely out of the question, but she can't even afford the little things they'd like, such as books, balls and action figures. Getting help from RAM made everything a little better, however. "It felt really good," she said. "It was a relief. My blood pressure really took a nosedive."