Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 22, 1993 TAG: 9311220013
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETSY BIESENBACH STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Peggy (not her real name) and her family have a new furnace, partially paid for by the Presbyterian Community Center, Roanoke Area Ministries and various churches. Both the Presbyterian Center and RAM receive money raised through the Good Neighbors Fund, which is sponsored by the Roanoke Times & World-News.
Peggy, 47, said her family has "always been low-income," but managed to make it on what her husband earned with his small business. This winter, however, he had to be hospitalized for emergency surgery. The couple has no medical insurance, and although they were able to find an agency to pay the hospital bill, they still owed $1,800 to the doctor.
Since then, Peggy's husband has had more medical problems, and in October, their 19-year-old furnace broke down and was found to be beyond repair.
They found someone who would install a new one, but the furnace cost $460, money the family didn't have. Peggy called charitable and social service agencies in Roanoke, Bedford and Lynchburg with no luck. Then she remembered reading about the Good Neighbors Fund last year and called the Presbyterian Center. Caseworkers there were able to find $300, and Peggy's family helped with the rest.
Although making ends meet is sometimes difficult, Peggy and her husband have opened their home to nearly 50 children in the past 9 1/2 years as foster parents.
Peggy has been unable to work since she was diagnosed with breast and uterine cancer 10 years ago.
"I always wanted a dozen children," she laughed, but a hysterectomy was part of her treatment. So she and her husband decided to take in foster children. They are given a monthly stipend for each child, Peggy said, but the money is not nearly enough to support a child.
"We're not in this for the money," she said.
"I felt something in my chest when I saw them. It was like God wanted them to be my children," Peggy said.
"Things seem to be coming together" financially, Peggy said this month. With the new furnace installed and paid for, "it feels like the burden is easier. We don't need a lot of extras, as long as we have each other."
should be made payable to Good Neighbors Fund and mailed to Roanoke Times & World-News, P.O. Box 1951, Roanoke 24008.
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Memo: ***CORRECTION***