fter Catherine Hembrecht pays for basic necessities like food, shelter and utilities, she usually has about $2 left to her disposal until her next Social Security check rolls in. During a good month, she might have a $9 surplus.
Hembrecht, 70, lives alone in her tiny rented Mishawaka, Indiana, home, where she is recovering from a recent leg amputation and learning to navigate daily activities from a wheelchair.
Lately, she’s had a hankering for a small pie from Pizza Hut. But she can’t afford to order one. Still, she doesn’t complain.
“I really don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me because I feel there are people out there who are worse off than I am,” Hembrecht told me last week. “There are people living on the street, and we owe those guys and girls so much.
“The government is ignoring them. I have a roof over my head. I’ve got food. I’ve got clothes. I’m doing OK. Sometimes at the middle of the month I might have one or two dollars, but it’s like, OK, I can do without things, too, because other people have to. So I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me.”