Seniors, Poverty and Why?


I was watching the news this morning. This is something I don’t do much anymore for exactly the reason I am going to blog about. The bad news out weighs the good news. It seems people really want to hear the negative or else why would the news be so popular.

 

The topic this morning affected my age group.

A) Seniors filing bankruptcy at a higher rate more now than ever♦

B) Rents raise for the poor♦

 

Why would Seniors file bankruptcy? In my parents era, there was a savings of several years hard work that helped when they retired. In today’s world, so many included benefits have been jerked away in order to save the companies money. The fall-out in 2010 did a lot of damage.

 

The co-pays on insurance have risen above being able to meet, forcing out- of- pockets to empty faster. Insurance companies seem to fight more on even paying what they should. Costs of medications, doctor appointments, and the outrageous prices being charged for inpatient hospital stays are absurd.

No wonder Seniors are struggling. They are forced to work for longer years before retiring and without the extra help government and retirement benefits would be given at the age of sixty-two, life becomes financially in a ruin. Sometimes bankruptcy is the only answer in order to be able to afford what has to be paid for.

 

Why would anyone charge the poor more money on rental properties and leave the moderate and rich alone? Is the secret name of the game to actually dismiss and rid the poor, leaving the fortunate ones to thrive?

 

I don’t  understand any of this. I know in my area and I also have mentioned this before in my other posts, I live in the Orthopedic Capital of the world. Is everyone in my area working at one of these fine manufacturing companies? No, they are not. It is easy to see that the rental prices of homes and apartments are skyrocketing here; but what about those who aren’t fortunate enough to work in these places?

 

Go back to school, further your education; is this your thought? It used to be mine too, but today, the cost of technical colleges and the bigger colleges is almost beyond our reach. The almost guaranteed job offer is not so much in our sight and of course that leaves us with paying those high college loans off. Some people are bettering themselves some, but the paying off those loans is for many years to come.

 

Landlords don’t keep the properties up to date because they would 1. like to keep the profit and 2. some can not afford the prices to do the updates.

 

It is a sad situation. I know for myself, I would love to have a little more freedom and less rules. I would love to have the inner fears removed that if I don’t do this or follow that rule; I am out of here.

 

Oh, don’t get me wrong, I know there are rules, but rules are changed without voting. Rules can be changed and worded differently day to day. What about having the choice to sit in your yard and have a cookout? This is not allowed here.

 

What about planting flowers? We have employees that do that here. We can watch the flowers grow, but what about helping make that happen? What about having the joy of sitting out under the picnic tables, under the shade trees? Taking our tea or coffee and chatting with others?

 

We have benches here and the benches sit under the sun. We have one patio table with four chairs, that I am not sure would hold me and this patio table is to be adequate for eighty-two apartments.

I don’t mean to sound like I am bitching. I truly am not. My thoughts on this are; hey, we made it to our Senior years. We worked hard. We helped our spouses. We fought in the war. We raised our children. We deserve to not live in fear wondering where our next home will be and where funding will come from and; can we afford it.

 

We don’t want to have to file bankruptcy. We worked hard our entire lives and never saw those big, heavy courtroom doors. Why now? Why would anyone want us to have to wait for our retirement? Why would they raise only the elderly and poor’s rents?

 

Perhaps it is true. People don’t want us around or people believe we are children in grown bodies and are pretty much worthless and just taking up space until death takes us.

Well, this is why I don’t watch too much news. It makes me sad. It makes me angry. What is going to happen to our grown children? Their time is coming. What can we do to help them when we can’t even help ourselves.

 

greens 8

Friends for Life


There are people worse off!
Yes, I realize this; but it doesn’t help.
Quit your whining!
I am trying; but it hurts.
Find something to do!
I am. I am trying to clean my house without falling down.
Why don’t you get off disability and get a job?
I miss work so much. My own paycheck. I wish I could.
You sure do sleep a lot!
Yes, I do. I get fatigued so easy.
You are the laziest person I ever saw!
If you only knew how hard I try to get through one day.
I don’t understand what’s happened to you!
Neither do I. It came on so slowly and now I’m fighting each step.
You never go out. Don’t you have any friends?
I have hundreds of friends through my support groups. Why don’t you take me out somewhere and help me through it?
I don’t understand you at all!
I don’t understand your lack of empathy and compassion. I thought we were always friends to the end.
 
Written by,
Terry Shepherd
 
Dedicated to those who’s illness has made a difference in their lives.
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I’M EITHER OUT OF THE OFFICE OR NOT AT MY DESK, PLEASE LEAVE A MESSAGE


I don’t know if any of you can relate to what this topic is about; but if you can, and have any thoughts you want to share, please do, and if you don’t and life is good, well I will just say a big thank-you for stopping by and reading.

So most of you know I am letting go in the not so far off future of the age of being 60. I have been a caregiver for many years, maybe longer than I care to admit. After being a part of the elderly’s lives and taking care of my dad and then my brother’s long struggle of MSA; my body finally caught up to where I am today.

I have some college course under my belt; but no degree. I have written a couple of books and published them; but I am no Stephen King. I have empathy for others and a compassion for those in need.

I am a mother of three and many grandchildren. I am divorced and try to make ends meet on my small amount I receive from SSDI. I have Diabetic Neuropathy and balance issues. Now with all that said, I am at a point where I need to change careers? Or should I call it jobs?

College is out unless I can find one for free and then find that special company who wants to hire a senior citizen fresh out of college with no experience. I have placed online applications with no response what-so-ever.

I think this is where I get disgusted. When I was a kid, yeah, well I know that was years ago, but when I was a kid, you went to the company, filled out the application, talked to a boss, got hired or not right there.  I guess this is just the way the world is today. No touching, no face-to-face, no live person to talk to, and many times there are no options of dropping off an application either.

There is much thought to putting together a resume that stands out, looks professional, and hoping the person on the other side of the screen, well his/her eyeballs just literally pop out of their head and they are screaming and jumping up and down saying, ” Yes, that’s the one. I have found the perfect person! Get her on the phone right now before someone snatches her up?”

What I see by taking the time to put together a resume, and then setting up a brand new account, so that I can see the jobs offered on their particular web site, and then figuring out how to put that resume you have saved on your computer to a copy and paste on their site, and making sure it is not too big to upload, can be a big deal for some people.

Then after we are exhausted and our brains are fried from trying to think of good references and which jobs did we hold seven years ago, doing the transfer from site to site of resumes, the very least we could receive is a THANK-YOU FOR APPLYING FOR A JOB WITH US.

No, that isn’t the way it works anymore for a lot of jobs. You sit back in your recliner and wonder if you did the whole set-up right; or did you forget to click upload, or did it get to the company or maybe lost in cyber space.

You wait patiently for your phone to ring for the next few days, just knowing you have something to offer; but the phone doesn’t ring, so you are left to your own ideas of what happened.

Is it any reason that some get disgusted and then depressed and finally get to the point of giving up and living off the system? Just a polite email or text, letting us know something. Anything would be nice, even an email with nothing in the subject matter.

I am in the process of getting a hold of one of fifty companies that work along side of Social Security for a program called Ticket to Work. Let me tell you, it is definitely work.

It is my responsibility to use my cell, because I have no land line phone to call any or all of these places. I started today, reaching out to quite a few. Do you know what I got in return?

I know you guessed the first guess, voice mail.

The person you are trying to reach is either not able to speak to you because they are on a line with another person or not at their desk. Please leave me a short message and I will return your call as soon as I can.

So then I go into the next level which is making sure I carry that darn cell phone everywhere with me. Especially to the bathroom to do my business. God forbid that phone will ring just as I am, well you know what we do on the pots.

 

 

Well it is 7:45 pm. Not one place I called returned my phone message I left today. It’s alright. Tomorrow is a new day. A new day to worry, a new day to scramble for food. A new day to figure out how I am going to get my clothes washed. A new day to try to borrow money so I have heat this winter. A new day to ponder on whether life is worth living or not.

I am not suggesting that the upper paragraph is mine. I am just using that as examples of what can be happening all around us as many of us who are doing all they can to not have to live on the system try to survive.

 

 

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