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All
black on black crime is not
always street violence.
White-collar crime is just as
prevalent in the community |
March 22, 2009 |
as in the suburbs. And it
hurts just as much or maybe
more. |
Dear Anyone That Can Help,
.
For
most of my life, I have lived a life that not
everyone in South Central L.A. has been
fortunate to live. I grew up in a dual-income
household with both of my parents, who were
married for 26 years, an older brother, and a
little dog, too. My parents put my brother and
me through private school and extra-curricular
activities as long as they could afford to, but
it came to a halt when my mother had the first
of a series of strokes when I was 10 years old.
My dad, who at the time was in remission, had to
take care of the finances by himself while my
mother began her life-long rehabilitation. Years
later, my father came out of remission and
succumbed to Leukemia in 2005 at the age of 55.
A year prior to that, my grandfather died. In
2007, my grandmother died, and six weeks later,
my brother died in a car accident on his way to
work. The Brown household downsized by half over
the course of two years. My mother lost her
father, her mother, husband, and son in a matter
of 3 years. She is such a strong woman, and I
admire her deeply for being able to keep it
together to the best of her ability.
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Unfortunately, during my mother's
emotional vulnerability, a (now former)
friend of the family took advantage of
my mother in 2007. He was aware that my
mother had been receiving fixed
disability income and of our recent
losses, so he figured he'd help us. Our
family had known him to be a smart
business man, but little did we know, he
was also a scammer. He proposed an idea
that would allow him to use the equity
in our home for his own investments, and
in return, pay my mother's mortgage
note. Everything seemed planned out and
legal because there were contracts drawn
up, but as we found out, a contract
can't make a person hold their end of
the bargain. After withdrawing over
$200,000 in equity, he stopped paying
our house note but we didn't find out
until we received a default letter in
the mail. Once my mom read it, she went
into a deep depression shortly
afterwards. My mother has been through a
lot and the house issue was the straw
that broke the camel's back. I had never
seen her in such a depression before.
She had all sorts of thoughts going
through her head, and she refused to
take her medicine or go to therapy. I
had just started a graduate program at
the time and lived an hour away. Every
weekend, I drove back to Los Angeles to
take care of my mother, pay her bills,
and praying to God that she was eating
and taking her medicine as prescribed. I
have had to do a lot of fast growing up
since my mother became sick in 1994, but
never as fast as I had to this past
summer. I had to be the decision maker
and handle things in Los Angeles while
I'm trying to pass a strenuous class at
my university.
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Ebony Brown and her
mother Jannice Brown |
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Unfortunately, I didn't pass the class
by 1%, but no worries, because I have
faith in the Lord that I will get into
another graduate program. I had been put
in compromising positions because there
were moments when I felt selfish for
continuing school after receiving a
Bachelors. I decided to go ahead and
stay in school during my mother's
depression because I knew that she
wouldn't have wanted me to drop out,
knowing that it wouldn't make the
situation any better.
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Fortunately, my
mother is doing better today. She has started
eating on the regular basis, taking her
medication, and is also making phone calls to
try to find help so we can keep the home we've
been in for the last 29 years. If I can't find
help, I don't know where my mother would live
given the income that she has. Thinking
wishfully, I told her we could be roommates once
I get accepted to a school so I can receive a
loan. We would really love to preserve our home,
but our fundamental concern is to avoid being
put in a position where we don't know where to
live. We have recently received the foreclosure
letter, and it's only a matter of time before it
actually takes place. We have tried loan
modifications, but we didn't qualify because we
wouldn't have enough income to pay even a
modified loan. We tried forbearance, but that
would only postpone the process. The
professional advice we sought always seemed to
lead to a road block.
My parents are a huge inspiration to me and they
are the reasons I chose to major in a
rehabilitative therapy. I saw my mother regain
her independence from rehab therapy after her
stroke, and I saw how my father could have
retained his independence a bit longer as his
health declined. My parents worked too hard and
experienced too many hardships for our family to
endure the consequences of someone who was
supposedly helping us. I know there are options
out there, even if there is just one, but I have
no idea what it is. I would hate to see the
Brown's household, something my parents
maintained for almost 30 years, go down the
drain because of a scam.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read
this letter.
Ebony B.
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