Dear Ellen I am 53 disabled with a 16 year old who is also disabled we are victims of sever domestic violnence. We rented an apartment and its full of mold, I do not have a housing voucher. We are both very sick and have been told to go to a hotel. The doctors called the building inspector and he couldnt even breath in the apartment. He got in touch with the landlord and I havent heard a word. Now I have to not only pay 1195 in rent but I have to go to a hotel and pay 950.00 a month until he fixes the problem I only get 1324 per month. Who can help me. The landlord hasnt responded. We are really sick from this and nobody rents to people like me I should have known something was wrong I got this place to easy

Hey Ellen,

How are you? My name is Yev. From watching one of your shows, I recently discovered you were doing the stimulus package giveaway again. I told my mom about this because she really needs help. The bills are piling up and it's not getting any easier for her. I can hear her crying at night when she says she's going to sleep, even though she will never admit it. I asked her to write me her story of all the difficulties she overcame and since she is not that good at English, I translate it for her. I apologize in advance for it being so long, but please read it; it is truely a remarkable and inspiring story:
It’s hard to wait, hard to catch up, yet even harder to begin.
I was very intrigued with one of your shows on which you helped people out with your stimulus package. I simply wanted to share my story with you in the hopes that you might be able to help me like you have helped many others.
My story has a happy beginning. I was born in an oversea country into a pretty wealthy family. I grew up with a very happy childhood having many friends, loving parents, and receiving a good education. As the years passed and I had to go out on my own, my life still remained, to me, unbelievably good. My many friendships continued on into my adult life, I had the job of my dreams, was financially stable, had a loving husband, and two amazing children who were my angels and my whole world…
One sunny morning that turned my beautiful life into gloom, the pediatrician brought out a diagnostic report that turned my world upside down: my four year old daughter had cancer and in this country there was nothing that could save her.
Houses, money, friends, work, laughter, joy, feelings of total bliss, all disappeared from my mind faster than they ever arrived into my life. All my bubbles of happiness and joy popped, but life still went on. That’s how began my gloomy morning after which followed foggy days, weeks, months, and years.
It was a dreadful morning, but after all it was simply a morning, the day has to eventually end and a new one will begin; a better one, a brighter one. This was my hope. If there is hope that means there is life. To live you have to fight; so my family’s fight to save my little girl began. With every fight however, comes sacrifice.
The first and least important sacrifice was the liquidation of all property, assets, and finances; everything went to cover the medical costs of my daughter’s battle with cancer.
The first place I traveled with my daughter was to a hospital in Germany. For two months the best doctors in the best hospital fought to save my child’s life. The doctor’s operated on my little girl and removed her entire right kidney which was completely infected with the tumor. But the cancer didn’t stop; the fight was not over, the tumor metastasized to my daughter’s lungs.
The clouds got thicker and the morning foggier, but the hope we had did not die.
The second sacrifice was work, friends, and family. My husband was a professor in psychology and I, a vice principal of a school.
America was the only country who was willing to help my daughter in her grave circumstance. It’s unusual that Wilm’s Tumor spreads from the kidney to another organ, in this case the lungs.
Through the heavy clouds came a ray of sunshine.
My husband received and signed a contract to work in America. We left everything behind and moved to America. And thus began our gloomy days in America; chemotherapy, ten cycles of radiation, two major operations on the lungs where the doctors removed one-third of the right lung and trimmed the sides of the left lung. Two days home, two weeks in the hospital, and on top of all that paralysis developed in both my daughter’s legs.
And yet I still had a second child; a four year old boy. Thank you to my son for all the patience he had. Staring at the clock on the wall, he counted down, each day, the time until his dad would come home from work. And thanks to the people who babysat my son during those days.
By this point almost two years had dragged on and my family was struck with another grief; the hardest days of my life. My husband could not handle any longer all that was going on and lost his mind. No, this is no understatement; this was the thunderstorm with lightening strikes on top of my foggy mornings.
Everything was in his name: our legal status in this country, our belongings, our lives, everything, but most importantly our health insurances, most importantly my daughter’s health insurance!
My husband began drinking his own urine as if it were medicine. He would collect it in jars and store it on our porch. He would forbid the kids and me (very faith oriented people) to attend church. In an extremely heated attic, in a rented house, he would create circles with lighted candles and pray to his own god. In addition, he would forbid the children to drink milk. There were many other things but I won’t discuss more because it is too painful and disturbing.
All my attempts and pleas to discourage and stop this behavior ended in physical beatings following which I was locked in the basement. This was just a general picture, but actually living day to day, hour to hour with a mentally disturbed person is terrifying. The most dreadful thing about my situation was that I couldn’t call the police or turn to anyone for help because our stay in America depended on my husband and his work visa. After all the radiation, chemotherapy, and operations, America remained the only place where my child, my daughter, could survive. I had to endure everything.
Separation came on its own. During one of his crazed episodes, my husband declared that we all were to return back home even if he has to break my arms and legs and take me back in a wheelchair.
The airline tickets were already purchased for September 19th, 1999. All our belongings were packed, including the dirty laundry and the children’s bikes.
At ten in the morning arrived the car with representatives from my husband’s work. Everything was packed into the car. I, with my daughter by my side, went over to my neighbor, a lawyer and an extremely good and polite person. I informed him that in order to save the life of my daughter we have to remain in America, so we were not leaving. As a lawyer relying on the law, he relayed my decision to stay to the representatives who arrived from my husband’s work to escort us home.
My daughter and I were safe but I had another child to worry about, my son; my seven year old son. He had the last word; would he stay or would he go?
Those thirty-two steps to my car were the most excruciating and nerve-racking steps of my life. Thirty-third step and I would reach my car. I could not do it; I could not take that thirty-third step. I’m a mother; to save one of my children’s life I can’t sacrifice the other. I can’t abandon him for her.
All of a sudden the sun comes out. All of a sudden a miracle. I hear my son’s voice, “I want to go with my sister and my mommy,” and then the padding of his tiny, soft footsteps, the greatest sound in the world to me.
We got in the car and didn’t stop till it ran out of gas. With no money, no work, and not much knowledge of the language, this began a new period in our lives in which those foggy, cloudy days seemed to be getting brighter with time.
Approaches September of 2009, almost ten years since the day our lives took a turn for their new beginning, and we are proud to finally be American citizens. My daughter has been ten years in remission and runs as fast as the rest of them. She recently successfully finished her first year at Towson University and will begin her sophomore year. My son successfully finished high school and will start college very soon. I am a school bus driver. We live in our trailer with our growing debt, our debt collectors, and our hope and happiness that we are together; our hope that everything will work out.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read her story. I understand if you can't help because there are hundreds of people out there who are struggling. It means alot that you at least took the time to listen. Again thank you.

Ellen, I love your show! You make me want to dance!!!!!! You give me hope that I will get a job soon and hopefully very soon. Thank you for being YOU!!!

I NEED YOUR HELP ELLEN!!!!!!!!!!!!! My mom is a very hard working single mom who got cut down from her job due to the failing economy and really needs your help!!!!!  And she often can't work because she needs to take me(her 14 year old daughter) to go the HOSPITAL or DOCTOR APPOINTMENTS. I have chronic and neurological lyme disease and my treatment is very exspensive!!! Over a year ago I fell ill with very bizarre symtoms.  I lost the use of right arm adn leg due to an unexplained muscle weakness.  I also experienced fatgue, breathing problems, athirits pain, hair loss and other countless symtoms.  After eight months of pain and testing I was finally diagnosed.  Unfortuanly, my insurance does not cover one penny of my treatment.  My treatment costs around $5,000 each MONTH!!!!  My moms money has run out because she only makes $2,000 a month!!!!  My mom can't pay for my treatment anymore.  My mom and I live in a small apartment and have a car that barly runs. Soon we will have to end my treatment VERY SOON because we don't know what to do anymore. My mom searched so HARD since I was diagnosed with lyme disease last Febuary to find some way to help her pay but nothing has worked out. We even had TWO fundraisers set up to help my mom pay but BOTH of then were canceled due to weather or money.  ELLEN YOU ARE MY MOMS LAST HOPE!!!!!!!!!! please please please help her!!!!!!!!!!And I would like to add that I love you show!!! I look forward everyday to watching your show! Since I always feeling sick and pretty down but I always look forward to watching your show. It  always cheers me up and makes me laugh!!!!!! =]                    

Ellen,

Hi how's it going? I am here to put in a word about my sister. She is a single mom of two and works really hard to provide for them. She is a very independent person and likes to take care of things herself without help from anyone else. She is very generous and giving to others even though she doesn't have all that much to give. She could use a new car even though she would never admit it to anyone!! It would mean the world to me (and her) if you considered her for your BIG stimulus package....PEACE!!

The little sis!

Thought I would just write and tell my story. Our tough journey began about 10yrs ago when our daughter was born. We had a son already that was perfectly happy and healthy. Our daughter at a yr old started having seizures and then we would go on to learn moer about her illness we had never heard of.She has ts(tuberous sclerosis) This is a genetic disorder just starting with her. She has tumors that grow in the organs and some cause problems.She has severe delays due to seizures not being controlled for very long and the severity of them.She hade to have brain surgery at 4yrs old in order to minimize the seizures but she still has them and she is mentally around 2yrs old. She is now 10yrs old though. We do not receive any help for her so over the yrs have accumulated alot of bills. I am a stay at home mom and in the past have cared for other children to just make ends meet. We are struggling as alot of people these days and I have another child that just turned 4yrs(a surprise baby ofcourse) and he is healthy.Thank God!! I sure wish you could come to Jackson,Mo. Hope you can keep doing what you are doing because you do help alot of people with your gift of laughter. Thank you.

Hey Ellen!
My name is Christina Cook, and I come from a very close, fun loving family. I am one of a set of triplets, with two younger sisters, and two wonderful parents, five dogs, and two cats.I was originally born and raised in New Jersey. After graduating from college, I was offered a teaching position in South Carolina, and quite naturally moved. Upon moving my brother decided to give his old car. I was and still am so blessed to have this car because this is obviously how I get to and from work. I did not realize how far it actually was from New Jersey.
Because the car has a lot of miles on it (well over 180,000), I am never able to drive home for holidays or school breaks. The car that I have does not leave the city in which I live because I am afraid that it will not make it back. There is also many times in which my family will fly in for a visit, and because of the dramatic prices in tickets (a price difference of at least $100 or more) they will fly into Charlotte instead of my city. When they do this I have to rent a car to go and pick them up. Because I am down here with no family, I am just too scared to leave the city with it. Because of the condition of the car with the miles, I am only able to go home by flying. I do not mind flying but when I do, I have to leave my two puppies (Jersey and Layla) behind because I do not have enough money to bring them along on the plain with me.
Aside from teaching I am also going to school. I am a very hard worker! I will have my M.Ed in Special Education in August, and am then pursuing a doctorate degree in Educational Leadership. The school that I attend currently is located inside of Virginia (I am taking online classes). However, when I begin my doctorate degree I will then have to take courses on campus, and will need a reliable source of transportation to bring me to and from school.
Ellen, your stimulus package would truly mean so much to me! My family right now is in no position to help me financially. This money would be a big help to my family and I because it would allow me to be able to put that money towards a new car. Ellen if you could please consider me for your stimulus package I will be forever grateful to you. I cannot do this without you. I love you so much, and hope that you will consider me in this great opportunity.

Transportation Worries,
C. Cook

Dear Ellen,

I love your show and your generousity. I would like to you to consider someone in my family for the stimulus package.
My son has earned a BS degree in chemistry/biochemistry and went to Penn State for a PHD. He had to quit the program last year. He had to move back home and began looking for a job and all he could find was a minumum wage job. He cannot move forward in his life. He has ongoing medical bills a college loan and broken dreams and a broken heart.He has so much to offer but without money he doesn't ahv ethe opportunity to move forward with his young life.
My daughter bought a car in good faith Jenna used up her life savings and found out it has a blown head casket and possible busted engine block. She lives in colorado without a car. She will be home the first part of August and then leaving for a job in CA. She doesn't have the money to get a better car or fix the lemon. I worry about her driving all the way to california from Indiana
My husband is in severe pain and will need surgery. This will be the third summer in a row he will have had a injury and had to be off work.
I am paying on medical bills from being in the hospital for 6days with severe strep pnemonis in March. I should see a pulmonary specialist but cnnot afford anymore medical bills.
We are overwhelmed and don't knwo where to turn.
Would you please consider helping someone in my family. You are truly an angel in disguise. Thank you. We are easy to find 60miles west of louisville ky and 50miles east of Evansville In.Ferdinand is a small town right off of Interstate 64.

Dear Ellen:

My name is Ashley I am 22 years old. I am writing to you about Father Kenny. He is almost 41 years old. His birthday is Aug 18th.He has always been the type of person to always to go go go. However last summer he was in a bad car accident. In result he had a massive stroke. They are having a really hard time. Their truck has been repoed, their electric has been shut off many times, they strugle every week trying to put food in the house. The only income they have coming in is his workmens comp, and they are getting ready to put a stop to that as well! He is not allowed to be left alone during the day because he is on many different medicines for the stroke and he tends to forget alot, and he has sezures (spelling) about 5-6 times a week! He has done so much for me when I was growing up, and he has been doing what he can for his first granddaughter (my daughter) since the accident. If we could win the Stimulas Package it would help them out so much with bills. My parents are great people and would do anything in the world for anyone. My dad would give you the shirt off his back if needed, it is just up setting that when they are done this low, that no one is around to help. And anything you can do would be much appreiated. God Bless you for all that you do!!! Thank you for taking the time to read this comment.
Ashley A. Starke
Frederica, Delaware

Ellen,
I am a single mother of three and I am living with my parents just until we move back to South Carolina. I keep sending money to my 20 year old because she has money problems. My car broke down and I cant get it fixed so my mother and step father drive me to work every day. I don't like my job that much but I don't quit. I've worked with costomer service ever since January. I want to go back to school to be able to get a better job. When my family and I get to South Carolina, I might have a job with one of my friends but even then I'll still have trouble supporting my family... The job here pays about $540 and in South Carolina it only pays $200 plus my daughter gets survivor benefits from her father's death. When we first got up here my kids begged me to take them back to SC because we started off by living with my friend, then moved in with my soon to be ex-husband, and now living back with my parents. My daught has a bad liver and our docter won't give us a referral to see the specialist and I can't pay for all the things that can help her. Ellen I need your help and i really hate admitting it. So please Ellen help me.
Cel