My family desperately needs help so that we can continue living in our home where we have lived for 29 years. The land we live on was given to my husband by his father since he was the only male child born to the family. This property is a legacy to my father-in-law and one that we would like to pass on to one of our children some day. I became disabled in the year 2000 after surgery to remove a sarcoma from my left chest wall which included removing four of my left ribs, part of my left lung, part of my sternum, reconstruction of my diaphragm and removal of all muscle and tissue in my chest wall (approx. 25cm) and replacing this muscle and tissue by packing my chest cavity with Goretex mesh and gluing the skin flaps over the mesh. I am in constant pain and suffer from extremely frequent infections, anemia and fatigue. We were doing alright after this happened to me until our daughter who is now 16 started having bouts with pneumonia. She was born with two congenital heart defects and underwent heart surgery when she was 3 months old and when she was 15 months old. She had been well, but the doctors did tell us when she was a baby that if she had any problems it would probably be during her teenage years and that is exactly what happened. She has been in and out of the hospital for treatment of pneumonia and her feet started hurting and we found out after a year of ice packs and elevation of her feet (treatment recommended by primary care physician) that she has bone defects in both of her feet and the only treatment would be to undergo surgery when her feet would be broken with an attempt at correcting the bone defects and she would have to wear cast on both feet. Unfortunately, the podiatrist told us that this would only have a 50% chance of making her pain better. So far, we have not wanted her to undergo this type surgery and pain. My husband was diagnosed with lung disease in the year 2001. He was a police officer and had previously worked at a cast iron pipe plant where he was exposed to silica sand everyday. At first, we did not really think much about him being diagnosed with this disease and he just kept on working. Then, in September 2004, he got ill with constant chest pain and congestion and became unable to continue his employment as a police officer. He filed for his Social Security Disability and we thought everything would be O.K. but his disability claim was denied and after hours of anxiety and desperation, his claim was finally approved in 8/2006. From 9/2004 until 8/2006, we had to live on my disability income of $1077.00 per month. During this time we also went through another tragedy. Our son who is now 18 was involved in an automobile accident. He ended up with a broken right leg, crushed left foot and broken left arm. They had to perform surgery and put a metal plate in his right leg, a metal plate in his left arm and tried to reconstruct his left foot. His left foot did not heal properly and now he also has difficulty with pain in his legs and back. He was in a hospital bed at home for six months and we just did the best we could. He still sleeps in a hospital bed at night so he can elevate his legs. When he was finally able to get up moving, he was very determined to complete his senior year of high school and prepare to go to college to major in computer science. He graduated in May, 2006 and we were all very proud of him. He started college at the University of Alabama in Birmingham in August, 2006. He received a band scholarship and played in the UAB Marching Blazers band. During this time, he kept saying that he was having problems with his stomach and diarrhea at times and he was taking Immodium or Pepto Bismol and that it would get better. I was worried about him any way because he had lost alot of weight after the automobile accident. Classes began for the second semester on January 4, 2007. That night, my son called me and asked me to bring him some medicine because he was having problems with his stomach again and that he was also vomiting and had a fever. I wanted to take him to the emergency room that night but he just wanted to take some medicine and lay down. The next morning, 1/5/1007, he called me upset and crying because he was in so much pain in his abdomen and had not been able to eat or drink anything. I took him to the emergency room thinking that it was probably just a stomach virus and they would probably be able to give him prescription medication that was stronger than Pepto Bismol and possibly give him some fluids through an IV. We were in emergency room for 12 hours. The doctor finally came and told us that our son had solid black stools and that he was bleeding from his colon. He was admitted to the hospital and put on a clear liquid diet, pain medications, IV fluids, and IV antibiotics for three days. On Monday, 1/8/2007, they performed a colonoscopy on him and told us that he had Crohn's Disease. I did not know much about the disease. I had told some other family members about his diagnosis and found out that he had three cousins who also had the disease. One of them is diseased at age 25 from the disease and one is disabled at home with her parents. I could not get any detailed information concerning the third person. When he was discharged from the hospital on 1/10/2007. He said he felt better and wanted to go to his dorm room when he was discharged and was determined to stay in college. Unfortunately, one week later, he was sick again and finally broke down in tears and told me he just could not handle college and be sick at the same time. So, he moved back home and he still has some good days but more bad than good. In 10/2006, my husband was in the front yard and a young man in an unmarked vehicle handed my husband a piece of paper that stated our home was in foreclosure and that we were being evicted from our home. We both were so upset and then the kids got upset. We called Chase Home Finance who told us they still were servicing our loan and that they did not know anything about Tom Murphy Real Estate and the paper that was given to my husband. I called someone else trying to find out what was going on. We received a letter from an attorney in Atlanta, GA stating that FNMA now owned our home and that we were going to be evicted. During all of this, we kept getting phone calls from Tom Murphy Realty telling us we had to move within two weeks and that they would give us $500.00 for the keys to our home. The attorney in Atlanta did file a complaint for ejection, but we got that postponed. However, we now have been advised that a court hearing has been scheduled for March 28, 2007 entitled "C001 Federal National Mortgage as Motion for Summary Judgment Pursuant to Rule 56 (Attorney John Rudd, Jr.).We do not know what this is our how to handle it in a proper way to save our home. We are very upset about this court hearing because we cannot afford a legal representative. A few days ago, a gentleman by the name of Kevin Elliott from US Loss Mitigation Services (1-888-820-7049) contacted us and said that he could help us and we qualified from several different government programs to stop this foreclosure. We thought he was with the United States Government (FNMA, Chase, etc.). After talking to him on the phone, he called yesterday (3/10/2007) and advised that he needed to send some forms to us to be completed. He then started talking about the fee we will have to pay begin their progress of "helping" us. He told me on the telephone that the fee would be $650.00 and that we could send half in with the papers and pay the other half later, but the other half would have to be paid before 3/28/2007 because they would not begin working to "help" us until we had paid the total amount of $650.00. He sent the forms to us via e-mail yesterday (3/10/2007) and in his e-mail he now states that the fee will be $759.00 and a very blunt message that they needed the full $759.00 to "help" us. My husband and I both graduated from high school and were working members of this society for over 25 years each. We both were forced to work from the time we became 14 years old until the time that our health made it impossible to work. Neither of us had families that would help us get into a college. We have just worked hard at whatever job we had and we paid our taxes and bills. Now, we do not know what to do. We don't even know if this offer from Kevin Elliott is a valid offer or if it might be the same type organization as Tom Murphy Realty and they are just out to get our home from us. WE NEED HELP IMMEDIATELY. WE ARE A FAMILY OF FOUR DISABLED PERSONS AND WE HAVE NO WHERE ELSE TO LIVE. ONE PERSON I TALKED TO EVEN STATED THAT BASED ON WHAT I HAD TOLD HIM ABOUT OUR HEALTH SITUATIONS THAT HE DID NOT THINK WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO KEEP OUR HOME. ANY HELP WE CAN GET WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED. OUR MORTGAGE AMOUNT IS $25,000.00. OUR HOME APPRAISED FOR $60,000-$65,000.00 SEVERAL YEARS AGO. IT IS NOT LIKE WE LIVE IN A HOME THAT COST $150,000.00 AND STILL OWE $125,000.00 ON IT. WE HAVE TRIED TO LIVE RIGHT AND HELP OTHER PEOPLE WHEN WE COULD. WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY NO ONE HAS OFFERED TO HELP US. WE CONTINUE TO PRAY THAT SOMEONE OUT THERE WILL SEE THIS AND MAYBE AT LEAST TELL US WHAT DIRECTION WE NEED TO GO IN TO GET HELP.
I KNOW THINGS ARE HARD FOR EVERYONE IN THIS WORLD RIGHT NOW. IF YOU HAVE JUST $1.00 YOU CAN GIVE, IT WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED. (CAN SEND DOCUMENTATION CONCERNING FORECLOSURE AND MEDICAL CONDITIONS OF FAMILY IF THAT MIGHT HELP SOMEONE HELP US.)
David, Karla, Zachariah and Kimberly Hogan 5126 Elm Lane Sylvan Springs, AL 35118
E-mail: dhogan64@yahoo.com
