Could Geri have been saved?

[Mabel Dodge]

What a shame our county has forgotten the tired, poor and homeless.
___________________________________________________________________

Could Geri have been saved?

By CORY LANCASTER
Staff Writer

Last update: September 18, 2005

HOLLY HILL -- Shortly after dark, a 64-year-old disabled, homeless woman lay down beside the railroad tracks and rested her head on the steel rail.
She looked south, away from a freight train approaching at 42 mph.

Geri Apfelbeck had come to Daytona Beach as an 18-year-old beauty -- blond, 5-foot-6 and looking for good times.

That was 1959. On a Wednesday night this past July, she was alone and feeble, walking with a cane due to complications from diabetes. In a rambling suicide note, scrawled on both sides of an envelope from the Social Security Administration, she said the pain and poverty were too much to bear.

SNIP
After the suicide, police found a note in Geri Apfelbeck's bag, written on both sides of an envelope from the Social Security Administration. On the back of the envelope, her words wrapped around an imprinted slogan: "For The Times That Count - Count on Social Security."

MORE
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/03NewsHEAD01091805.htmhtm

[philarq]

1. link broken

[Jim Sagle]

3. New link:

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/03NewsHEAD01091805.htm

[Joebert]

2. Try to open it, then change .htmhtm to just .htm

:-)

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. That is so sad

[Mabel Dodge]

5. Thanks for fixing the broken link

:)

[OzarkDem]

6. Happening more and more these days

Women are considered to no longer have value in our society once they've raised their children.

Since welfare reform of the 1990's, most women are eligible for very little assistance, if any, when they become disabled. They only receive assistance as long as they have minor children living at home. Many in this age group stayed home with their children for years or took low paying part time jobs to spend time with family.

As they age and need benefits, most are eligible only for the minimum amount, in our state its around $550 per month.

I've mentioned before, I see these women frequently where I work, diagnosed with cancer, unable to work or make ends meet, ending up homeless or sleeping on a friend's couch.

[kestrel91316]

10. We women with NO children have no value either.

[REP]

12. SSD Not Dependent on Reproductive Status, Thanks Be

I am disabled and childfree (don't have any/don't want any) and my SSD is not based on how many children I have, but my lifetime earnings. That's how it is for everyone on SSD; AFDC is only for those with dependent children and there is no support system for non-disabled childfree below the poverty line, aside from foodstamps, which are very hard to qualify for now.

[Dudley_DUright]

7. Yes, this very sad story was on the front page of my local paper

There are too many like Geri in our society. Poverty is on the rise under Bush after falling under Clinton.

[shadowknows69]

8. what may even be sadder

is that we as a society have no way for people like Geri who feel they've run their course to end their days with dignity and comfort. She had to mutilate herself on a train track to find peace. :cry:

[DarbyUSMC]

9. Money, programs, housing etc. etc. can't help people who refuse to

help themselves. If she'd have had a free house all of her own, food from food stamps and medical care she would have used her SS money for booze until she ended up dead. With her health problems, alcohol was poison and eventually would have been her Waterloo. Yes, she may have lived a little longer, but she was killing herself day by day.

[bobbieinok]

11. callousness trumps caring