A homeless woman always carried three suitcases with her. For 16 years, people thought she was crazy, until one day… Wanda, an intelligent elderly woman, recently celebrated her 80th birthday. In her youth, Wanda had worked as a machinist, and even after she was laid off, already at retirement age, she did not give up – she studied to become a paralegal and decided to move to Washington, hoping to find a job in the capital. But for an elderly woman who was already over 60 at the time, there was no place in the big city. She could only find temporary work, and soon she did not have enough money to rent a house in the capital. So she found herself on the street and had to sleep in a shelter or right on the street in a sleeping bag. Yes, she was receiving a pension, but something was wrong: in different months, the amount of pension payments varied greatly – from $300 to $900.
The woman tried to figure out what was wrong, but no one paid attention to the homeless woman’s complaints. Wanda realized that once she cashed the checks and spent her pension, it would be very difficult to prove anything. Therefore, she never used the money and sent the checks back to the social security office, demanding explanations again and again. By the way, Wanda has four adult children. All this time, her daughter, who lives in another city, was looking for her mother in Washington. The elderly woman never told her children that she was on the street, only calling from time to time to let them know that everything was fine. After understanding the situation, the daughter, of course, immediately offered her mother to return to her hometown and live with her. But the old woman refused: she decided that she would not leave the capital until she received her money.
The woman carefully archived her correspondence with the official services, and over the years this archive grew to the size of three suitcases. Wanda always carried her suitcases with her, and people began to think that the old woman had simply lost her mind and was carrying around some junk. “Everyone thought I was crazy, they told me to throw the suitcases away,” Wanda recalls.
The stubborn grandmother lived in a homeless shelter for 16 years. One day she told her story to a shelter worker named Julie. The woman asked for permission to look at Vanda’s papers and was surprised at how neatly and carefully all the papers were archived: “all the papers in these suitcases were neatly organized by date. She was telling the truth all along-the government owed her a lot of money.”
Julie helped Wanda find a lawyer who agreed to defend the “crazy” homeless woman. And then the social security officials suddenly woke up! On August 23, a transfer was made to Wanda’s bank account – she immediately received $99,000. The woman’s lawyer believes that this is not all the money the government owes her. Wanda still hardly realizes that she has achieved her goal. She rented an apartment and moved out of the homeless shelter. For 16 years, everyone thought Wanda was crazy, and no lawyer would agree to represent her. Even her own daughter thought her mother’s behavior was stupid and did not believe that she would succeed in getting her way. If it wasn’t for a chance meeting with Julie, the woman would have lived in a shelter for the rest of her life.
