THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 7, 1995 TAG: 9505050284
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
After dark, Richard Ulrey avoids looking in the direction of the big, old house that stands not far from his trailer on Indian River Road.
Except on moonless nights, the rectangles of its many windows are gaping black holes in the clapboards of the Pungo farmhouse Ulrey has called home for as long as he can remember.
He doesn't venture inside the rambling structure anymore either. The sounds his wheelchair makes on the floorboards echo hauntingly through the empty rooms where once happy laughter rang out.
``I thought I'd always live here,'' says the 36-year-old Ulrey, who has used a wheelchair for nearly 20 years.
He and his wife, Peggy, must find a new home. The homestead is for sale, and the land their trailer stands on will be part of the deal.
When he was 18, a motorcycle accident left Ulrey paralyzed from the waist down.
The couple has found a house on Charity Neck Road that they'd like to buy. They could afford the modest payments on the $25,000 sales price, but the house needs so much work that they've not been able to get a mortgage. Lenders hesitate to loan money on a house that needs so much work, but the couple doesn't have funds for renovation.
``We're between a rock and a hard place,'' explained Peggy Ulrey. ``In as little as 30 days we could have to be out.''
The cause of the young couple is being championed by their pastor, William Stanley of the Pungo Church of God. Stanley hopes to get enough building materials donated and pledged so that church volunteers can bring the run-down structure up to snuff.
``This is the way it used to be,'' says Stanley. ``People helping each other.'' Because the church is small, Stanley hopes others will want to be part of the effort to help the Ulreys.
While no work could be done on the house until it is purchased, the church is hoping that a commitment of money, materials and labor would sway the mortgage company to authorize the sale.
Until his mother's death last July, Ulrey thought that his father's last wishes and his mother's promises to him would be fulfilled - that he would inherit the 2.5 acres of land his trailer stands on. But it didn't turn out that way.
In 1993, after four years of widowhood, Ulrey's mother Olivia remarried. What Richard Ulrey and his brother Melvin did not know then, and would only learn last July after their mother's death, was that she had signed the property over to her new husband, Alex Cornelius, two days after the ceremony.
Just a little more than a year later, the 63-year-old woman died suddenly of a heart attack, and Cornelius became sole owner of the house and the 6.5 acres it sits on.
Ulrey says that his stepfather was a self-described baker and healer, though he apparently was not engaged in business during his marriage to Ulrey's mother.
In early March of this year, Cornelius packed up what was left in the house and moved away, putting the house and land up for sale. Ulrey has been unable to locate him.
The property's selling price is $130,000. But $112,000 is owed on it, Ulrey said.
Neither Richard nor Melvin Ulrey realized how far in debt their mother and her new husband had gone - didn't know that they had mortgaged the house and land she had owned free and clear at the death of their father, Melvin Sr., who worked for the Navy for 26 years.
Another sibling, Linda, died two years ago at the age of 42.
For the past two years, Richard Ulrey has been in and out of the hospital for treatment of the pressure sores which, in January, resulted in the loss of his left hip joint.
Despite his handicap, Ulrey has an optimistic smile, friendly demeanor and hearty handshake, which are not those of a man who gives in to adversity.
The Ulreys make modest payments on the trailer they bought about three years ago. Moving it to a trailer park is not a option, they explained, because they couldn't afford to make the payments on it and pay lot fees and water and sewerage charges and still make ends meet.
Richard Ulrey collects about $1,250 monthly in Social Security benefits and a small annuity from his father. Peggy's income is not something they can count on. She works on Pungo farms seasonally. Last year, she earned only about $2,000.
The couple plans to sell the trailer and use the money to pay it off if they succeed in getting a mortgage for the little house on Charity Neck.
``The worst part is I look up at the house and expect to see her walking out here,'' says Ulrey, gesturing toward the house that now haunts him. ``It's like she's never lived there.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by NANCY LEWIS
Richard Ulrey, who has been paralyzed from the waist down for 20
years, and his wife Peggy must find a new home. The homestead is for
sale, and the land their trailer stands on will be part of the
deal.
HOW TO HELP
If you'd like to donate labor, materials or money to help refurbish
the home, call the Rev. William Stanley at 426-6494.
by CNB