Sunday, December 20, 2009
Fund helped family restore power
Good Neighbors Fund
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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
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Melanie Nichols' father, William Wright, had a dream. With the profits from a successful business, he bought more than 80 rugged acres on Brushy Mountain as an out-of-the-way home for himself and his extended family.
But shortly after he bought the land, his business went under and he was disabled by a heart attack, Nichols said. Instead of building the large house at the summit that he had planned, he and his wife, Patricia, live in a single-wide manufactured home near the foot of the mountain.
He did manage to move his mother from the city and into a double-wide farther up the road.
Five years ago, Nichols, 29, and her husband, Eddie, 31, and two of their three children moved into the home to help her grandmother, who had Alzheimer's disease. The arrangement benefited everyone, Nichols said. Her husband was self-employed in the construction industry, and although his work often depended on the weather, it was enough so that she could stay home with the couple's now 10-year-old daughter. They paid for the utilities and "we were doing OK," she said.
Later, Melanie Nichols went back to work. Her job had benefits that provided medical coverage for the whole family. But three years ago, when she was pregnant with their second child, she was laid off. Medicaid paid for the delivery, and she was able to stay home with her new son.
In 2007, Nichols' husband took a full-time job that offered benefits but paid only half of what he had been earning before. "But it's 40 hours a week, guaranteed," she said.
Paying the utility bills was difficult, and in September, they received a cutoff notice on the electric bill.
"We were trying to pay it," Nichols said, "but we were always behind."
The account was in her grandmother's name, Nichols said, even though her grandmother had spent the past two years in assisted living. She passed away that month, and when the couple went to have the power turned on again, they decided to put the account in their names. They needed a $140 deposit.
There was a fireplace for heat, but the real problem was water. Without power, the pump at the foot of the mountain couldn't send water up to the Nicholses' house, or to her parents' trailer.
The couple turned to Roanoke County's social services department for help. It was too early in the season for heating assistance, they were told. All the caseworkers could do was to refer them to Roanoke Area Ministries.
The agency is supported by The Roanoke Times' Good Neighbors Fund.
The Nicholses received a grant toward the deposit and the power was turned on. "We feel better being able to do it on our own," she said, but "I was thankful. They helped us when we badly needed it."
