Our first year living together and we were as happy as ever. My daughter Tania had told us the day I moved away that we wouldn't even last 3 months. I'm happy to say that she was wrong. In the middle of February, Chuck received a partial unemployment check with a message attached to it. It said it was his final check. His unemployment had ran out.
We were lucky that his income tax check came in the beginning of March. We did not expect for his unemployment to stop and the car needed fixing again and the roof was leaking. We needed a new shed, the old one that was here was in a bad shape.
I took the old shed down during the week. Tania & her boyfriend Dustin came from Ohio over the weekend to give us a hand. He fixed the car but it was raining, snowing and cold most of the weekend, so he just patched up the leaks on the roof. It snowed on Saturday but we were able to put up the shed by Sunday.
Chuck tried to go to work at a couple of different places but he couldn't even put in a full day's work, his arthritis and shortness of breath were getting so bad.
In late march, Tania talked us into going to Ohio for a week. She needed a baby sitter for her son Dustin. They paid for our trip and gave us money for babysitting. With that money, Chuck & I decided to go to my favorite bingo on a Saturday night. Chuck won $75.00. I had made a bet about something with Tania for $20.00 and I lost the bet. She gave the $20.00 to Chuck for safekeeping. The following Tuesday night, we took Chuck's winnings and went to another bingo. I told Chuck not to buy any instant tickets, because our luck wasn't that great. He bought 20 tickets anyway with Tania's $20.00 and gave me half of them. I opened a qualifying ticket for a $1,200.00 jackpot and I won it. We were able to live on that money along with my Social Security check for a few months.
Since we couldn't afford to go to Ohio for Easter, we invited mom & Willie over for dinner. Mom enjoys watching me cook, specially when I make gravy. She's 87 yrs old and she told me that she never learned to cook. Until I came along, they never celebrated Holidays. Chuck & her just went to bingo.
After trying to work unsuccesfully at different jobs, Chuck applied for Social Security disability.
Mom fell in the bathroom and broke her ankle on one foot and her toes on the other. She spent a week in the hospital and then was moved to a nursing home.
Tania & Dustin sent us some money to go to Ohio for Mother's Day. It was also my daughter Chantal's birthday. I called her to wish her a Happy Birthday and I asked her if she knew it was also Mother's Day?
She said she knew but I think she forgot to wish me a Happy Mother's Day. That made me very upset, because she told me many times before that she didn't like me. She still resents me for staying married to an alcoholic and abuser, yet, she drinks heavily and smokes dope herself and she's living with a drug & alcohol user. She also resents me for moving in this country when she was a baby. She became even more resentful after I moved here to be with Chuck.
After we got back home from Ohio, I was feeling very depressed. I decided to call my son Jacques, because I had not seen or heard from him since Chuck & I went to visit him at Christmas. I had sent him e-mail messages but he never replied to me. I asked him why he never replies to my messages or calls me? He said he doesn't want to be bothered. I also asked him if he also resents or hates me? He said: "Yes I do". I asked him if he was kidding? He replied: "No I'm not joking, don't bother me anymore". I was really upset and I called Chantal (something I regret doing) and asked her if she hated me too. She told me: "I don't know". I asked her if she loved me and I got the same reply: "I don't know". Then she said she had to go and she hung up the phone.
A few minutes after I talked to Chantal, Tania called me. She was on her way to the hospital with Little Dustin. Her Dalmation dog bit him in the face. He ended up with over 20 stitches on his cheek.
My arthritis was getting real bad, specially my left knee and lower back. I had to use my walker almost everywhere I went. I couldn't walk too far without my knee buckling up. At the end of May, my doctor sent me to physical therapy, 3 days a week to see if it would help the pain. They gave me pool therapy and it helped for the pain in my knee & back for a few days, but it made my arms worse. By the end of the weekend, I was very anxious to get back in the warm pool. My next appointment after Friday was always on Tuesday. By then, it was like I never went to therapy the week before.
My $673.00/month disability check was not enough to cover all the bills. I had to pay $182.00/month for spend-down on my Medicaid so I could get my prescriptions. There is no welfare in Illinois unless you have children, so I called the Township trustees for some help on the rent. Since Chuck had no income at all, he was allowed $200.00/month to be paid directly towards the lot rent of $367.00/month. That was a big help. We also had to pay $100.00/month on our trailer.I called welfare and applied for food stamps. In the meantime, Tania & Dustin were loaning us some money to get by.
We received $232.00 worth of food stamps at the end of June. We were going to get that amount every month thereafter until our income changed. To us, it seemed like a lot of food. We had gotten used to eat cheap food, like macaroni & cheese etc.. in the past few months. I also received a letter from Illinois Medicaid stating that starting July first, my spend-down was going down to $40.00/month.
First week of July, Tania & Dustin came over to finish the roof and to put insulation that a neighbor gave us around the trailer skirting. I don't know what we'd do without them. Tania & I had become very close. They both would do anything they could for us.
Since my spend-down was lower than when we applied, our food stamps were lowered to $218.00/month. It's still more than we had a few months earlier.
HAPPY TOGETHER cont..
~Bob's Mighty Midi Site~