I’ve always pretty much known that the elderly of our society especially those who are on their own, are more vulnerable to the many schemes and scams out there that squeeze their already tight finances. But has anyone ever heard of someone who still leases their phones from the phone company?? WELL, let me tell you. AT&T is taking $28.95 per month for the leasing of two phones (one cordless, one corded) from an elderly woman who has to make ends meet on subsidized, church-owned, senior housing, food stamps, medicare and a little over $500 per month in social security benefits. That amounts to $347.40 per year in addition to her monthly basic phone charges. How many other elderly and handicapped people on fixed incomes are there out there that the phone company is scamming like this? Has anyone ever heard of this??
Not only is she being scammed by the phone company, but this same elderly woman, who, due to chronic emphysema (and now unfortunately lung cancer), is homebound most of the time and who’s lifeline to the outside world is a hundred year old computer that she paid some guy $400 for, which that guy put together from pieces of a hundred other computers, is paying AOL $29.95 per month and also World Net $21.95 per month simultaneously. She doesn’t even know what World Net is let alone why she is paying for it.
A friend of mine, due to life’s circumstances, has been given the difficult task of tending to this poor lady and her final arrangements during her final months, while she succumbs to the lung cancer that is taking over her body. She is in hospice. My friend, this Angel, is trying to figure out where this woman’s finances stand.... bills, expenses, income etc, as well and how to pay for her FINAL expenses. Unfortunately, there is no money, and in fact she is sorely in debt, having even taken out a loan on a small life insurance policy, of which has only a final value of just over $500.
Now I ask you, HOW, WHY can companies like AT&T, AOL, World Net and others like them, take the most vulnerable of our society and squeeze them for everything they have. What has our society turned into? Is anyone taking notice of what is happening to our elderly. Why is it that in this country, the elderly are treated with such disrespect, such cruelty? We will all, with God’s Grace, be elderly one day. What will happen when the next generation is responsible for OUR care? Will we be any better off than those we have been charged with caring for? Or will it be worse for us? We should be setting an example for our youth on how to respect and revere our senior citizens, not show them ways to shove them away and forget them. Remember everyone, what goes around comes around. What will happen to us when we need them?
