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| SHE'S A WRITER |
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Mary Myers is a Daughter of The American Revolution yet to be recognized. .You can follow her ancestry at
http:www.homestead.com/paulyoung/geneology.html, a site which directly links Mary Myers to a famous Browning through
her mother, Deanne Young, and to DAR status.
This child is seeing seeing her mother slapped about by a poverty nobody could manage if they weren't allowed to try
to earn more, overcome it--Mary's mother cannot try to do better or she will lose her life-long medical needs of a heart transplant
and anti-rejection drugs every day of her life thereafter. She only qualifies because she is dirt poor, if she gets any money,
she's on her own.A church offered to pay for her transplant with funds collected for another woman who died too soon to get
it, but it was rejected--you have to be insured, transplant centers in Tampa and Los Angeles told her, to get one, in case
something goes wrong, we need to be able to put in a second heart, not have to let you die.
Most of the month the kids are now used to it; no fresh veggies like carrots or celery to nibble on, or berries for cereal,
no fresh fruit at all...May this bright girl and her equally bright little sister rise beyond this and look back with love
at the needy and the much harder to love greedy.
| Virginia Lutz,6, doct'r Anthony Lutz' daughter |
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| spent the last 30 years of her life in the house Deanne and girls live in now |
Seven 8-year-olds---Paul
H. Young never would have gotten his invention, the modern bamboo fly rod, off the ground without the business sense of French
girl Martha Marie, who managed his business and saw to it they had plenty of time for their passion. Before baseball legend
Ted Williams became an embarassment - all of us embaressed for the poor man, who was surely told the napkin was destroyed-
he was a good fisherman, who often fished with Martha and Paul Young. Martha's brothers all served the U.S. in
WW1, and Martha 's doctor father and Martha joined the Red Cross. Paul's brother Ben and a friend founded the National Bank
of Detroit ; his father was a college English professor; and one of his ancestors was the grandfather of the inventor of the
machine gun . Another served in the Revolutionary War.
Paul's son married Dorothy Batliner, descended from Leichtenstein
mayors.Their daughter and church window designer. painter, and builder Joe Myers' son are the parents of these two Medicaid
bums who want to tax worthy people more for more bennies they don't deserve such as stability of electricity and running
water to their guess what American house.And fresh fruit and veggies more than one week a month (with rice and cereal
for meals 3 weeks a month). They just want too much, too much...for nothing.
When Florida Governor Jeb Bush thought he
was off-mike with his comments about Florida voters asking for smaller class sizes, and said,"I've got some really good tricks
up my sleeve to make them rue the day they asked for that!"
No doubt he must have said the same thing, him and his greasy
Republican administration, to whatever compassionate Floridians tried to keep floating in the Republicans' sweeping
cuts to the longevity, comfort, well-being and dignity of the poor that went down last year to offset revenue loss with
the (upper-crust friendly) abolition of state estate tax.
Briefly, whereas Medicaid had paid for adults over 21 to get all
their teeth pulled and dentures for years, they stopped in 2002. Currently, adults in Florida can only have active (infected,
injured, in danger) teeth pulled (no root canals, crowns, fillins, etc), they cannot get replacemets. Deanne was signing
papers last week attesting that she understood (as she was finding out) that the extraction of the tooth could cause
sharp bony plates to appear through her gums and Medicaid would not cover treatment of them such as filing them if they were
cutting the inside lip open; that the extraction could cause permanent or long-term paralyisis of her mouth or tongue or the
extreme opposite, unbearable pain because of damage to a sensitive nerve peculiar to the area, and that if this was construed
the case, Deanne
"understood" that the only micro-neuro-surgeon whatever the specialty
is caled in Florida they would pay was at Shands in Gainesville , a 4 hour drive; that the extraction could cause the crown
of the tooth next to it to break or come off and Microsoft--duh Medicaid,we're tired and thinking "capital M and ubiquitous"--Medicaid
would not pay for the re-cementing or re-sealing , or put that crown back on period; that they would not provide upper
or lower dentures or full sets or in any other combo any teeth to anybody.
Deanne needed a heart transplant at any time* but first needed
to clear her body of a virus only 50% of people can clear, with a drug that would definitely put her into heart failure, perhaps
too far to remain on it, hopefully though to a tolerable point, and would not let her blood clot very
expediently at all, so being for her a bad time to have surgury or even pick up a kitten;and this condition, with attendant
flu, fatigue, and mental symptoms(depression-55% of users), was to last 12 months.To begin it she had to get (and this is
taxpayer dollars here--this is how useless taxpayers are )a liver biopsy (let's say $800 or more), tons of labwork,a body
catscan (people with defibrillators can't have an MRI, which is gettin state of the art deferrant to claustrophobics
like Deanne, but she had to have a catscan, and panicked in the Mars-bound or 25th-century-headed trip strapped
into a metal cylinder she seemed to be on with no way to get loose enough or turn around in that body-sized--COFFIN-SIZED--
scale-Challenger shuttle-looking thing ! And they had to start over, lots more torture for her, lotssa money from taxpayers.The
interferon cost $1600-2000 a week including 90 tablets a month of Rebetrol and 4 shots a month of Peg-intron-B (or whichever).
Deanne was to taake it for 8 weeks without interruption, then get a reading on her virus levels. if she had any virus at all,
therapy was considered failed; if she was clear of the Hepatitis C (which she got at Tampa General when she received
a blood transfusion after losing too much during surgery for endometriosis in 1985, experience had shown the medical
profession that she needed to remain on the interferon 10 more months to effectively lose the virus forever. If her teeth were
ok, and she hadn't gone and gone into breast cancer et all by then, she was a heart transplant candidate.
Before her 6 weeks were up, so that nothing of the efficacy of
the therapy on her could be determined for the sake of intentions to continue being clear or anything, Deanne lost a crown
on a back bottom molar, and went to the only dentist that took Medicaid for adults in Tampa,and explained to him that she
had just been on interferon but would have to stop to get her tooth pulled or she might have uncontrolled bleeding. The
dentist gave her antibiotics and told her she should get all her teeth pulled so she would not have to stop interferon
over and over , to have other teeth pulled
as they went off because she had more bad ones and Medicaid did not give fillings or root canals.I.e., a tooth needing a cavity drilled
and filled would instead have to rot to extraction point but knowing as all did that Deanne would never get a filling, they
should just go ahead and pull the teeth with cavities instead of waiting for the inevitable; now Deanne was temporarily off
the interferon,and if they pulled all teeth now she didn't have to go off it again.
She wondered how much he knew
about interferon. He talked as though it was a given that she was to be on it for months; he even puzzled her by seeming
to be coming from a place which had her on it for years She could be off of it in 6 weeks, a non-responder, incurable: they
knew that fast.Then she didn't have to quit it over and over to get teeth pulled and be better off having her 18 ok teeth
pulled than not. He said he was thinking of her,her systemic issues taking precedence over teeth, get all chance of future
infection out of the way so she could go full speed with the heart stuff ; she could be back in his office in
3 weeks getting her dentures on, he said. Although the idea of having all her teeth pulled was frightening and she apprehensive
,the appeal of a full, pretty smile in a month and then the interferon and heart transplant all done while she had teeth,
was too much to resist.A 4-tooth bridge had fallen out 6 months before and that absence of facial structure for so long
had weakened and recede her jawline. once strong and defiant. Now, photos others took of her and sent her were alarming her--Deanne
looking like she got in a street fight and the street won. Weak chin,puffy, red sacs under her eyes from God knows
what, deflated just enough to look really ugly . Like bruises in the harsh daylight.
But vanity wan't her sole motivator; she had teeth on the bottom right and top left sides of her mouth, and the 4 top
front teeth and eye teeth,and 9 teeth in a row running across the right and middle of her lower jaw, allowing for chewing
,but only because she had a place in the middle where teeth met, still.
Seven days after starting the antibiotic the dentist gave her for the
decayed crown the eyetooth on the other side of the mouth went off like a firecracker that wouldn't quit.zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzthe
pain was ttoally too much The dentist chewed her out for not getting all the teeth pulled by then. brightly she pointed
out that since she was on the wrong antibiotic she could have died after the extraction so it was a good thing she hadn't
had the $10 for gas to get across the bay to St. Pete yet.
The Medicaid oral surgeon she was sent to was in the next town over,
St. Petersburg, an hour's drive from Tampa, the only one in Florida, said a family from Ft. Myers, a 3-hour drive, who'd
brought out a teen with an abcess whho was crying in pain.The clinic was without mercy; said they never work on any mouth
the first visit, just look , take pictures, plan, and schedule the first appointment of the plan.
When she finally did, they wouldn't pull it because it hurt so bad each
time the little Haitian dentist tried.She began to insist that the only time Novacaine didn't work (which they were shooting
into her liberally) was when the infection was so far gone it was immune to all antibiotics and so couldn't be cleared. They
did not pull teeth that were infected,Deanne would have to try one of the few antibiotics she hadn't taken yet and come
back, or save or borrow for a root canal/crown ($600-800). The latter a great choice as saving the eyetooth would give dentists
a place to anchor a partial someday if Deanne did not desire to get her perfect two front teeth pulled for a full upper plate
, which cost $800 anyway which Deanne would never get her mitts on anything like.
Back home, having spent $10 for gas for nothing and having no money to
feed the kids now,Deanne couldn't tell what to do other than the antibiotic, which she did right until the electric company
cut off her power about 3 days later 30 days after cutting off her power for $176 their cardboard courtesy tag (bright
yellow for all the neighbors and passerbys to see) said but when she got a ride there, said she needed $366, the next
month's bill had become due, so she pissed off the ride, who took her there for "nothing" and was incredulous that
the electric company would give a false due amount and then refuse it on arrival . Two days later she'd gotten it, and
someone had taken their sweet time driving out to turn it back on, and the seige was over, the air-conditioning back, no more
constant miserable soaking wet Deanne too hot to move; just a refrigerator and freezer full of bad food and wormy things
already.
The second time the electric company said when she called and inquired
what she needed to pay to restore service, $315.50.They said it was so much because it was two bills.Deanne sought help
from the Salvation Army, still in a daze about her tooth going to ruin her interferon therapy and heart transplant plus kill
her sooner; that's how it seemed to be shaping up...
The electric company told the S.A. that they needed $ 356.90. No
less accepted. Deanne asked the S.A. Family Services department worker why that was, The lady ignored that. The lady asked
the power company when Deanne's next bill was due and they said the 29th. "She gets her Social Security check on the first,
Can't you wait until then?...Why?"
After she hung up, she explained."They're going to cut your
power off for 2 days and then you owe them another $35 turn-on fee on top of the bill. That's how they make their money."
In paying that bill, The S.A. could only pay $300. Deanne had to
pay $56.90 before they'd pay the rest. A she unwrapped the Our Lady of Guadalupe scarf folded carefully in her
purse, Deanne was giving up Mary's freshman year yearbook , which she'd promised her all year. She couldn't buy it when
it was $55, and now especially since it was $75. There are only penalties for the poor, you know? In
every aspect of life we deal with. Late electric payments, late yearbook purchases...dentists costing megabucks in gas to
reach while the rich and normal ($20,000 a year up) could see a dentist in town on a dollar's gas...
Mama had promised her helpful, sweet, no-allowance money but no
grumbling daughter Mary--who helped so much-- the yearbook and then it was clear Mary would not get a single birthday present
or a cake ( Rich fare better here again rule--those making $20,000 up a year for a family of 4 could have a birthday
party and their kid would get 15 gifts .The truly poor can't have nothin--they haven't even food for themselves--and
of course they're the ones that could use those 15 presents most.)
Mary was sad but diverted from 'no birthday" by "yes yarbook" ( which
has the only picture of what girls call their "crush" these days she'll get hold of, being shy and not going to like try to
snap his mug ). There are ten school days left. Everything is merging to D-Day. Theres'no chance they'll get $75 for
a yearbook. On May 10, 2003, Mary wakes at 4 a.m, (her bus leaves at 6:30 a.m. but this is a Saturday) having
slept since she got home drom school. "Someone has to give me a ride," she says sleepily in what turns out to
be an understatement.She has won 2nd place for best poet in the ninth grade in the school district, the 7th largest
school district in the nation.The Hillsborough Council of Teachers of English are honoring her as an outstanding student writer
and her writing teacher as an outstanding teacher writer at a spring brunch at 10 a.m. Six hours. Deanne hasn't even
gone to bed yet.
"No one's going to be awake between now and ten to ask!" Deanne says,
horrified. "Mary!"
"What," the other side of her frizzing long braid mumbles into the couch.
"There's no way to get thee but you have to go!"
"I know I have to go, because it's twenty dollars a person and someone
's already paid the forty dollars for me and you to go," Mary said.
"Oh great Mary I don't even have bus fare. And for that we'd have to leave
now. An hour ago."
"An hour ago?" Mary's eyebrows went up.She never seems to be watching "Reba", the only tv show her
mother watches, 30 minutes a week: Deanne never sees her looking at it, even when the sounds beg for a peek at the tv
over head where she is working on the computer or doing homework sprawled on the couch. yet she's got the comedic timing
and automatic loftiness sometimes of the acerbic middle daughter , a bitter, negative, but funny typical teen angst
role. Mary won't show too much interest in the show, because
she's a perfectionist who intends to be a cinematographer slash director slash producer slash writer and so
far not having lived long and just developing second and third and velvet and feather layers to the originaal ones of her
cortex , maybe some dreams being washed out leagues under the sea while others grin orange brightly as coral under
baby blue waters or a few inches under the bottom of your aluminum canoe briefly as you develope places to store
new people and places quickly coming
into
you like air before your air was through.
She in other words immediately thought the Chyenne character played by
Joanna Garcia on Reba was dumb. Of course, it's what she plays up for laughs.But Mary is highly critical because Dr.
Jay Garcia, Joanna's father, is a name on her birth certificate, so she expects greatness of Joanna (Deanne:"Honey, your name
is the greatest name on your birth certificate. Watch.")
It's 7:30 now--they have 2 hours to leave to get to the Brunch Expensive ,
there's probably strawberries and bananas, maybe stuffed French toast because it's the Temple Terrace CountryClbzzzzzzzzzzzz,
All paid for--wowee!They wish the camcorder wasn't in the pawn shop but that's where it's been these past 12 months. I'm glad
I didn't just get my tooth pulled, mama thinking. mary sleepin' -in a littles.Whose gonna take em? The daddy got no phone
this month, there's no neighbors, thev'e no kin.Deanne makes a list but she's falling asleep. Sees Dan's black lab
lose and has to call mary awake to tie her up. Sally would pull the pacemaker-defibrillator lead right out of Deanne's heart.Dan
had brought that on her with a sneer after she'd told Marina she couldn't have a puppy for her 7th birthday. it was mean,
to demonstrate she wasn't his daughter's boss. As
Mary tries to catch the big sleek beautful but irascible dog, sirens peal by and animal escapes Mary who
wants to sshower so has herarms out in gestures of defeat the dog doesn't give an inch to, or a Little Debbie cupcake the
Salvation Army lady gave them.If this takes an hour there will be no $20 brunch and honored daughter anyway. deane has to
leave the little one with someone; her mother says Deanne's twin sister, named Big Debbie, just went to bed
and grandpas'asleep usually past ten.Will they call a cab and jump out of it a block from the country club?
Will they steal a car? Will the rotten welfare mother make Mary squash down as she enters the bus and say she's 5 years
old (free fare)like those morally depraved peopled do? Will they hitchhike, old crow and sweet young thing looking like
she just come off the farm tall and lithe, mama five-nine and baby five-ten? Do they have a friend ? Mama thinking
Mary's friend keri's mom, who works downtown, could take Mary downtown to her dads., and the rest of them, and Dan would sit
Marina and take the ex and oldest to the award brunch. It's a long shot , she calls her mom, she thinks about the
bus but transfers might make them too late , sometimes, a lot, you've got to wait
40 minutes.
stay tuned for the answer to the was the $40 wasted cuz the people
were too poor to avail themselves of it? Big Question.
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| Joseph D,Myers, age 8 |
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| Mary's and Marina's Grandfather |
| Paul A. Young, Major, Army Air Corps, WW2 |
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| bombadier |
| Dorothy, Paul A Young's wife, |
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| A High School Grad at age 16 |
| Dorothy Young, U.S. Coast Guard, WW2 |
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| Both served their country. Medicaid recipients are their daughter and granddaughters |
| Deanne Young, 3rd Grade, age 8 |
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| Mary and marina's mother |
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