Letter to the editor: Social Security, Medicaid save lives

I have a very good friend whose daughter was born with a rare disease that caused her body to grow at a rapid rate when she was very young, and her organs, including her heart, were not given a chance to catch up. The mother was told that her daughter would not live to adulthood.

Through love and a mother’s tenacity, this woman is now in her 50s. She has always had problems with her heart and other organs. She has had several operations and now wears leg braces so she can walk.

A bout with covid, and its long-term effects, has left my friend struggling both physically and mentally, but like any family, they look after each other.

These brave women both had jobs to survive up until a few years ago, but because of their health, they just could not do that anymore. So they pool their meager funds from Social Security and disability to pay for rent, utilities, food and sometimes a splurge for dinner at Arby’s.

My dear friend and her daughter survive on Social Security and Medicaid. Will that support be there for them? Will her daughter have to apply for jobs each week to continue to get the help she and her mom so desperately need?

There are folks just like my friend and her daughter. They continue to help at their church, give help where they can to their neighbors, struggle each day just to survive — and vote.

Harriet Ellenberger

Mt. Pleasant