Former Vendor and Auto Mechanic, Randy Passes Away
By: Dolores Manley
On February 21st; I lost a very excellent friend and his name was Randy. I got to know him over seven years ago from a friend of his, Dave Belak, at their meeting Place. Randy came to live with me that day because my husband was incarcerated. I was married to my husband for eleven and a half years. I met my husband at Bob’s Limo Service at East 66th Street, in 1989. He had his own cleaning business, Diversified Home Specialist. He died on March 2, 2012 and when he died I did not receive social security for his funeral expenses.
For months, Randy helped me out with jobs in and around my house. He had his own auto mechanic’s business with his two brothers. When he got sick, around two years ago, he was in and out of the hospital. Randy was very responsible, he got some money and paid me rent. First he went to the store brought groceries for the house. Randy was a heavy smoker and drinker. He loved salt; his leg never healed because of his salt intake. I do believe Randy would still be alive if he would have cut down on drinking and smoking. I will miss him deeply.
He was always thinking about me on holidays. Randy was always kind to everyone and very generous to people too. Randy tried to get disability from Social Security. He had to fight for his money when he got sick. He even went to the hospital and got the run around with the SSA for being sick. Also, because SSA pays a month of time they are cheating the sick out of months of benefits. I had to pay for my husband’s cremation and know that I will have to pay Randy’s cremation. I will not get help with SSA, because I was not married to Randy.
When my husband died, the SSA robbed me of $250.00 because they said that my husband got extra Social Security money before he died. When my husband was trying to get his disability in with disability specialist attorneys’ he almost got it, but SSA intervene and denied him immediately. Why does it always take so long to get help for a legitimate disability for sick people in Ohio?
Copyright Cleveland Street Chronicle
May 2014 Cleveland, Ohio