Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 18, 1994 TAG: 9412190007
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETSY BIESENBACH STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
That's how Jerry Miller ended up at the Presbyterian Community Center.
Miller, a widow, has had her dog, Gigi, since the poodle was a few weeks old. Most of her family is gone.
Gigi "is just about all I have," she said. Gigi is very frisky and always greets Miller at the door when she comes home.
The dog is now 14 and gets overheated easily, so Miller ran the air conditioning a lot last summer.
Unfortunately, she had just moved, and her monthly electric payments were based on the previous tenant's usage, which was lower than hers. In September, she received "a terrifically high electric bill in the hundreds of dollars" to make up for her low payments, she said.
Her monthly payments since have been adjusted, but Miller still had to find help with the big bill. Some of the money came from Roanoke's Social Services Department, but the rest came from the center and from the Good Neighbors Fund, which is sponsored by the Roanoke Times & World-News.
Without the help, "I would have been in really bad shape," Miller said.
When her husband died 10 years ago, "everything changed," she said. Toward the end of his life, the couple had some financial trouble, but for most of their marriage, they were comfortable.
"There were times when I had everything I wanted or needed," Miller said, but after her husband's death, there was almost nothing left.
"We were unprepared," she said. There was no life insurance and no health insurance, and Miller had quit her teaching career years before.
So, at age 55, she started all over again, moving to South Carolina to be with her parents and taking a job teaching at a Catholic school.
She stayed with it for about seven years, then returned to Roanoke. She wanted to work full time, but no one would hire her at her age, she said, even though she is experienced and has taught at the college level.
To make matters worse, she broke her foot in a car accident and isn't sure she is up to the physical stress of a full-time job.
For the past several years, Miller has been teaching homebound students a few hours a day and filling in with minimum-wage jobs. She recently turned 65 and became eligible for Social Security and Medicare, the first health insurance she has had in a decade.
Although she has no medical bills, Miller has some health problems and has been unable to afford a visit to a doctor.
She tries to live from day to day. Thinking ahead is "a luxury I can't afford," she said.
Miller is bewildered by the reverses she has been through. "I never knew years ago that this would happen to me," she said.
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by CNB