Published: May 10, 2008 07:37 pm         

Crisis can push family over the edge

Agencies help those facing hard times

DANVILLE — Asking for financial assistance is more difficult for some than others, especially when they’ve never needed any help before.

Those who work in social service agencies have learned that many people fall into the category of the working poor. As long as their paychecks continue without interruption, they may not prosper but they are self-sufficient. But how long they could manage without that paycheck is a very different story.

Others might consider themselves comfortable or even well-off until an emergency strikes. It could be personal, medical or from natural causes like the recent flooding in Watseka. Whatever the reason, such situations can dramatically alter people’s financial ability to cope.

That type of situation faced Jenny and Greg Geiken following Jenny’s battle with an unexpected and severe illness.

Jenny, a stay-at-home mother of two from Tilton, sought treatment in December at Provena United Samaritans Medical Center’s emergency room for what she thought was an extremely sore back.

“I’ve always been healthy,” Jenny said. “I thought I’d just pulled a muscle, that I was getting old.”

The pain persisted and increased, which prompted her trip to the hospital. Doctors there and at Provena Covenant, where she was later transferred, diagnosed her with cancer. They told Jenny the tumor was either in her kidney or in front of it.

They also said it was the size of a softball.

“The doctors said they couldn’t help me,” Jenny said. “They gave me morphine for the pain. One doc-tor said the only place that could help me was in New York.”

Instead, Jenny and her husband chose treatment at an Indianapolis hospital. Doctors there initially agreed with the previous diagnosis.

“They said there was no help they could give me, no hope,” she said.

But further tests changed all that. “I’d been told that I wouldn’t see my children grow up,” Jenny said. “Then I was told that it was just an infection.

“Man can say, but God has the final word.”

Jenny came home Christmas Eve to a house without presents but filled with joy. The little bit of savings she and her husband had put aside was gone, though.

Although the family had health insurance through Greg’s employer, all the incidental expenses of Jenny’s illness added up.

“We assumed because (Greg) had a job, we couldn’t get any kind of help,” Jenny said.

She shared that assumption with a friend who thought differently. The woman suggested that the Geikens call East Central Illinois Community Action Agency. That call to the agency’s main number made a considerable difference in their lives.

“They helped us so much,” Jenny said. “They gave us a voucher for groceries. They signed us up for energy assistance.

“That help freed us up so we could get other things the kids needed, like shoes,” she said about her two children. “It made such a difference.”

Dwight Lucas, CEO of ECICAA, said cases similar to this are part of the agency’s normal workload.

“Emergency or crisis services are not always about income,” Lucas said. “We coordinate with other agencies, make referrals, to get people the help they need.

“There are still gaps in the services that are offered.”

That’s why ECICAA hopes for strong support from the community for its May 17 endPOVER-TYnow Walk-a-thon. The money raised will not only support current programs, but it will help to develop new ones to fill those gaps.

Jenny’s strong faith helped her through the worst times she went through in December. Once she heard her new diagnosis, she had a new lease on life.

She feels that reaching out to ECICAA was another sign of God’s work. She and Odette Hyatt-Watson, one of the agency staff members who helped the family, remain close.

“We are here for people,” Hyatt-Watson said. “We want to be proactive, to reach out and help people.”