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Linda Shaffer hasn't added a story.
It all started with the Northridge Earthquake January of 1994. My husband and I, were Land Developers in Huntington Beach, CA. We were living the American Dream. We had it all… love, success, happiness. Then just like that, 17 seconds changed our lives forever. We had built prime real estate, two adjacent buildings. There was no Earthquake insurance on the buildings due to the deductible being $100,000. We had to sell homes to cover the damages. The location is in Santa Monica, CA.The new building, that we financed, was up to code, but the charming 80 year old brick building was not. It sustained a great deal of damage. We lost revenue from the stores and restaurants that could no longer pay us. It went downhill from there. We moved some of the tenants, into the new building but it just wasn’t the same. So we limped along for many months trying to make the magic happen again, to no avail. Then the business partner we had, pulled a fast one and slipped in a clause on an update to the agreement we had. Without having my husband initial the changes, he had him sign the update. Joseph put it into the safe and went on with trying to recover from the earthquake. Then July 31, 1994 came. My husband decided to reread the update to the agreement and completely imploded. He read that over looked clause, about 15 pages back. He trusted this person and was horrified at what he pulled on him. He had signed the interest rights away. The amount was staggering. 10% interest only payments on $2.5 million dollars for a period of ten years. He had been had. Any court would say, are you over 21 can you read??? My husband said that over and over again. Until he just stopped talking. He turned to me and I could see it in his eyes. He was gone. He was lost in his pain and knowledge of what had happened. For the next 6 years he became sicker and sicker. There were more than 8 suicide attempts, with us in ambulance rides, with lights and sirens going all the way to the hospitals. He was diagnosed with “Severe Major Depression” by many doctors. We were in and out of hospitals for years. He took large amounts of antidepressants the psychiatrists would prescribe for him, to no avail. His hospital stays would be for months not weeks. He had 36 ECT treatments. Nightmares of Cuckoo’s Nest still run though my mind. The results were a very short lived window of being cognitive. Since July 31, 1994 all he could say was “I Just”. I can only assume that he meant if he had just read that clause. . His medical bills during the 6 years of his illness were over a half million dollars. Quickly depleting any money we had. The partner stopped paying. No surprise there. He has to live with himself. He knows what he did. I’ll just leave it at that…. My husband died July 7, 2000 one week before my mother. He also did not believe in insurance for his private life. He felt insurance was a form of extortion. So being the non pushy wife, I did not push him to get insurance After being 24/7 caregiver for my wonderful husband for six years I was exhausted and completely overwhelmed with my life. His dying was tragic. He was a kind, caring and generous man. He was the love of my life and I miss him every moment of every day. My mother was my rock. Moving her into my home to be with her in her last days was heartbreaking. I was not ready to say goodbye. She was an amazing Mother...Losing her that same week sent me into a tailspin. As a heart broken widow and daughter, I tried to survive. I invested in a small stock and had a so so portfolio before my husband died. But while mourning him the dot.bomb happened. Consequently, my portfolio plummeted along with so many other people's. I took the very last of our savings and purchased a home in Phoenix AZ near my youngest daughter. I was trying to restart my life. At the time my husband had been gone for five years. I purchased in July 2005 with a hefty down payment, the very last of the money, trying to reduce my overhead and then the real estate market crashed. I had hoped to hold the house for a couple of years then sell take the equity from that and downsize. But fate had something different in store for me. I built up a pretty good Mobile Notary business and along with the little bit of savings, I was able to get by and pay my bills…. When the Real Estate market crashed so did my Mobile Notary business. It was a perk for the home buyers … the banks quickly dropped using mobile notaries. I lost the home to foreclosure in Oct of 2008. I now rent and live on a social security check of $970 per month. My rent is $725. I get $116 in food stamps a month. I have no car. My utilities are high because I live in the desert. I have reached my bottom. I am soon to be 68 and alone. I go for long periods of time not seeing anyone. I just don’t know what is going to happen to me. I stress and worry every day. To top it off I fell in my home on October 5th. I dislocated and have a compound fracture of my shoulder. I have been bedridden ever since. I am so sad and lonely being alone here in Las Vegas. Then one day, thanks to Facebook, I heard from a friend that goes back 52 years. Carmen is my designated Guardian Angel. She never left that quaint little New England town and always wondered what happened to me. She told me if I can get back there she will help me find an affordable place to live and help me find a job. This will change my life more than I can even express. I am a complete shut in. I only leave my home to do food shopping once per month when I get my food stamps and visits to doctors. Relying on the kindness of my neighbor to take me. I have nothing left to liquidate. I sold all my jewelry, sadly even my wedding rings, car and other valuable possessions. This will be the last move of my life. I will be 68 in December and my health hasn’t been all that great. All those years of the severe stress I endured took it’s toll. I know my plea doesn’t compare to some of the pleas, but I am very sincere. I am just sitting here in my home day after day struggling on how to get by, waiting to die. The job market is not within my reach, due to age, no car etc. I have tried… after hundreds of applications, I never got hired. Every day I am one day older and the years are just coming at me. Soon I will be 70. Who knows how much longer I have on this earth. After stepping into my black and gray life when my husband had his mental crash on July 31, 1994 I am hoping to step back into a life of color again after 20 years of misery. I am hoping to spend the golden years of my life, being productive. Living on my own with an income and not being needy. I don’t need to be a millionaire again. I just want to be able to be peaceful and self reliant.
Can you please help me get back to Jaffrey?
Thank You, Linda Shaffer
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