Donald Valentine
by Donald Valentine
(Ocean City, NJ USA)
Well! Where do I start? Since the separation and divorce that followed, it's been the hardest years of my life, being treated like a second-class citizen. I suffered a serious stroke that had me dead to say, I was in coma for four days after falling in my basement apartment when the stroke happened, no one knew I was there for those days. I was paying child support for my two children at the time and I had a descent job. After being hospitalized for weeks and then the therapy afterwards, I was unable to maintain any employment. 11 months passed and I had no income. Having to move to another state for care, I moved in with my mother, I needed home living care. That’s when I received the letters from the courts to appear before a judge that I was in arrears for those 11 months that I did not know about. I was incarcerated. I had no cane to use to walk, they did not give me the medications that I needed, and in a population were I was not considered of as a stroke survivor. I felt more then anger but contempt for the system. My ex wife has always been about money, she could have prevented that from happening by just telling the judge that was paying and could no longer because of the stroke and I could not work anymore. She watched me go to jail. When I was released, I stated to receive the SSD benefits, which were later garnished because of the arrears and plus the state law that intercepted my living benefits. They said even though my children received SSD support payments, they also took the arrears plus a percentage of any financial benefit, which left me with less than what my children were getting. I had not seen my children. I was forced to find a job that would hire a disabled person. When a company for part time work employed me for 12 hours a week doing a non-physical type of job, I lost my SSD benefit, which I cannot get back. Now I'm poor, barely able to feed myself, I borrow from family and friends for help to get my medications. Still able to do that 12-hour job, I recently sustained a lower back injury that needed surgery, which without benefits I can’t get. Not eligible for Medicare nor anything else. By the way, my ex wife used my SSD benefit, putting my name on a list for emergency housing ownership without my knowing. So I ask..."Where is the Justice”?
