THE PUBLIC MIND: PRAISE OFFERED TO SENIOR CITIZEN SERVICE

Heise letter

To the Editor:

I am a Senior Citizen. I didn't ask for this title, it just happens. I have two cars, and wear pretty good clothes. I do not go to the Nutrition Center, but I have a brother who does, and he also has two cars and wears pretty good clothes. He also has a bed-ridden wife, and he goes each day and gets them a good hot meal at the center.

He doesn't bother you, me nor his son or daughter for assistance. They are helping themselves. I like to know that the center is there because if I should lose my husband it would be next to impossible for me to exist on Social Security. If he should lose me, he would be at a loss for food and companionship and my Social Security check.

Those of you that are out there that think retirement means money galore, trips, big cars, designer clothes, need to sit down and take a long look at your own future. Tomorrow comes before you know it. If you're a postal worker, government employee or if your company has retirement, then you can feel secure. Those of us that have been employed by home-owned companies, restaurants, doctors, retail sales, and all other companies that do not have benefits, may need all the assistance you can get when you can no longer function in the working place.

So, we've put away a nest egg, but we lose our spouse at age 64. We're getting all of $400, to $800 (or anyplace in between) a month Social Security. We have insurance, taxes, phone, utilities, food, medical and rent if we do not own our home. Now are you going to do this on what you have a month? Your nest egg dwindles, and fast. You're glad to take all the Senior Citizen discounts you can get. When you've reached the age of 72, you find that the nest egg is gone, you're feeling great. How long are you going to live? How are you going to exist? That's a good question, one that many of our friends, relations, grandparents, parents now find themselves faced with.

Since most of the Senior Citizens have paid all their lives on their homes, they too will be paying the increase in property taxes that is being asked to help fund Senior Citizen benefits. I feel that we should all band together and help our seniors. It is a small price that is being asked to put a warm meal in the stomachs of many who wouldn't have it, or to put companionship into many lives of those who are lonely. You people who talk about how great the Seniors have it, just hang in there, one day you too will be writing, "I am a Senior Citizen".

Name withheld by request