THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 31, 1995 TAG: 9503300156
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 11 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
SARAH VICK IS THANKFUL for the help she gets keeping her subsidized Russell House apartment tidy.
Vick, 86, says that her social worker sent her ``an angel'' in Lucille Page, who comes to her apartment three times a week to help with the heavy work she can no longer do.
``The good Lord is so good to me,'' says Vick, recounting Page's many virtues. ``She's my friend. I love her.''
Vick has difficulty even walking down the corridors of Russell House because of emphysema and a collapsed lung. She says that without the help she's gotten through Virginia Beach Social Services, she'd probably be in a nursing home.
At Russell House, Vick enjoys talking with other residents in the common rooms and playing cards after leisurely potluck lunches.
Vick lost her husband of 50 years to Alzheimer's disease in 1986. Henry Vick was 82 when he died. Although the couple had worked hard all their lives, they lost most of their assets to poor business decisions Henry Vick made before they knew he had Alzheimer's.
Vick now gets all the business advice she needs from staff at Russell House. They help her pay her bills on time, including $53 in monthly rent.
Because it's not easy to get by on her $439 Social Security check, Vick also receives $39 a month in Supplemental Security Income.
She also relies on food stamps, and currently receives $37 worth of the coupons each month.
``I don't know what I'd do if they cut me off on those (food stamps),'' says Vick, who pays her own utilities.
Born in North Carolina, she has lived in Hampton Roads since she was 13.
She has a son in Florida, a brother in Norfolk and a sister in North Carolina.
By the time she placed her husband in a Chesapeake nursing home, Vick was exhausted from caring for him at home. The couple had already applied for a subsidized apartment, and Vick then moved into Russell House. Because it was hard for her to drive to Chesapeake to visit her husband each day, he was moved to a nursing home close to her new apartment.
Although Vick cooks her own meals - her favorite is collard greens and cabbage - Page cleans and washes the apartment. And when Page isn't there she sometimes calls Vick just to make sure she's all right.
Claudette Gorenson, Vick's case worker, also checks frequently to make sure Vick is OK.
Not all residents of Russell House are as self-sufficient as Vick. ``It's so sad,'' she says. ``Some are losing eyesight and hearing. One went blind overnight just about. Two others have oxygen all the time. There's a young girl in a wheelchair.''
Vick has a car and still drives short distances to pick up groceries.
But she says she's glad to have help available.
``I'm very very happy. It's really home to me now,'' she says. ``I'm so lucky to have people doing things for me I couldn't do myself.'' MEMO: [For related cover stories, see page 10 and 11 of The Beacon for this
date.]
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by NANCY LEWIS
Sarah Vick, 86, lives in a subsidized Russell House apartment and
receives $39 a month in Supplemental Security Income and $37 in food
stamps.
KEYWORDS: WELFARE PUBLIC ASSISTANCE by CNB