One Bad Turn of Events

Michael

Broken Hip but No Benefits —Alamance County, NC, aid recipient— I was trying to get social security one time. I should still be able to get it. I broke my hip 2004. That’s four screws, two bolts and a plate. … Continue reading

Posted in Aid Recipients, Health & Disability, One Bad Turn of Events, Place: Alamance County, Stories, Transportation, Truth 4: People want to work | Comments Off on Michael

“Randall”

Alamance County. Aid recipient.
Difficulty Getting Aid
Oh yeah. I’ve had personal experience from my mother. Yeah, I mean she worked all her life too, and one time she lost her job and had to have her gall bladder surgery, so you know she wasn’t working. She was a single parent, two kids, so she went and applied just to pay the hospital bill. Continue reading

Posted in Aid Recipients, Health & Disability, One Bad Turn of Events, Place: Alamance County, Single Parenting, Truth 1: No one gets rich | Comments Off on “Randall”

Jackie

Alamance County. Aid recipient.
Left Alone to Raise a Family
I’ve had three boys, and I had a daughter, she died when she was two and a half months old After she was gone, I went ballistic [laughs], yeah. I had a nervous breakdown, I got pregnant, married, and I didn’t love the man I was married too. Didn’t love nothing. I went to work every day, came home, but I had an alcoholic and a drug addict for a husband. Continue reading

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Christine

Alamance County. Aid recipient.
Caring for Sick Parents
I was enrolled at GTCC [Guilford Technical College]. I was living in a family home with my parents taking care of them. My father got really bad. He started having seizures, which they thought were strokes. Well, things started going south at that point Continue reading

Posted in Aid Recipients, Domestic Violence, Education, Health & Disability, Housing, One bad choice, One Bad Turn of Events, Place: Alamance County, Single Parenting, Truth 4: People want to work, Truth 6: Alcohol and drug abuse | Comments Off on Christine

“Peyton”

Alamance County, NC. Aid recipient.
Illness Makes Finding Work Hard
So I got laid off about four years ago, maybe five. Anyway, so I went back to school, took up appliance repairing, GTCC [Guilford Technical Community College], but as soon as I finished the program, which is about a year, I had a stroke. So it hinders my employability now because no one wants to hire a person who had a stroke Continue reading

Posted in Aid Recipients, Health & Disability, Making ends meet, One Bad Turn of Events, Place: Alamance County, Truth 4: People want to work | Comments Off on “Peyton”

“Cindy”

Alamance County resident.
Change in Circumstances
So, I didn’t know my daughter’s dad was on welfare until she said something about it. Well, she didn’t know it was welfare; she asked me about a grocery store receipt. I’m like, “What? I mean, how does this man go from driving a Mercedes and living in a fancy house to welfare and food stamps?” Continue reading

Posted in Food Stamps, General Public, Health & Disability, One Bad Turn of Events, Stigma/Stereotype | Comments Off on “Cindy”