Wilma has been in her St. Louis home since the fall of 1991. The home originally belonged to Wilma’s brother and she and her sister took possession from him just a year after a fire devastated the property. “We gutted it all out, and put it all back together,” Wilma said. It took a year before the property was livable and has been an ongoing project ever since. In 1996, Wilma’s husband moved in and her sister moved out. Wilma and her husband now use the home to take care of their grandchildren, which is a miracle considering the series of medical issues they encountered beginning in 2002.

“I got sick, and then my husband got sick and neither one of us had an income at that time,” said Wilma. “He almost died, and then he went on to social security; that’s all we had for a little while, before that we were living on my 401K until that ran out.”

In 2002, Wilma was diagnosed with lung cancer. She was in and out of the hospital for six months before she eventually returned to work for the local newspaper. In 2005, Wilma and her husband’s mortgage payments became unmanageable and they filed bankruptcy to save their home from foreclosure. Once they came out of bankruptcy, Wilma used money from her 401K to catch up on her house payments. Then, in 2006, Wilma hurt her back at work and has not been able to work ever since. She said it took nearly six years before the disability claim from her work came through.

Things did not get easier for the couple, and in 2008, Wilma’s husband nearly lost his life. “He had cirrhosis of the liver. He had what they call a fatty liver, which also causes cirrhosis. I believe they said it runs in his family,” Wilma said. “Then his kidneys shutdown, that’s when he almost died. He’s doing a lot better, but he’s never going to be able to work again.”

This past May, Wilma and her husband were once again on the brink of foreclosure. However, their mortgage had been purchased by AHP and Wilma and her husband received a loan modification offer just before their home was set to enter foreclosure. Through the modification, Wilma and her husband were able to settle their delinquency for $2,000 and stop foreclosure.

Wilma and her husband could not immediately afford the $2,000 payment for the modification, but found AHP’s CEO Jorge Newbery to be very understanding in working out a payment plan. Wilma is expecting to receive a lump sum of money in the near future which she says will allow her to pay her bills moving forward. When asked if this modification will change things for her and her husband, Wilma said she believes it will. “It doesn’t seem like a lot, but I mean we still struggle a little bit because we have a couple of grandkids that we have to take care of,” Wilma said. “Hopefully I can try to pay things, it might not be on time, but I’m still going to try to keep things paid until I can get the money to where I can pay everything off.”