HEARING - U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging

29
Mrs. RIEGER. He was a very hard worker.
Chairman MELCHER, Now, what I am getting at is you forego
doing what you are supposed to do for yourself. You are jeopardizing
what it is going to take to keep you up and around and capable
of a decent life. So I think you are between a rock and hard place;
your situation is between a rock and a hard place, and you should
not be there. There ought to be somebody picking up this tab after
you are of a certain age. And that is what this <strong>Committee</strong> is about,
too. We think there should be somebody.
Mrs. RIEGER. Well, thank you.
Chairman MELICHER. And if it needs to be the Government, if
that is the last resort, then I think it should be. And it is a question
then how high a priority it is. How high a priority is it to take
care of situations lik6 this.
Mrs. RIEGER. Like I said, I do not want them to give me money
just to go out here and have a party on. I would just like to be able
to pay my honest debts so I can face people.
Chairman MELCHER. Thank you very much for your testimony,
Mrs. Rieger. I entirely agree with you. I hope you are able to continue
to work at that supper club as long as you want to and feel
like it, but I do not know. I think it is hard work, and I know what
you are talking about when you say it is harder work than milking
those cows or working on the farm; of course it is.
Mrs. RIEGER. It is. I can stop milking a cow, but when somebody
wants something to eat, I cannot stop.
Chairman MELCHER. Yes, you have got to get those orders out
right now.
Mrs. RIEGER. Right.
Chairman MELCHER. Thank you very much.
Mrs. RIEGER. Thank you.
Chairman MFELCHER. Our next witness is Mrs. Helen Fish, of
Newport, MI.
Mrs. Fish.
STATEMENT OF HELEN FISH, NEWPORT. MI
Mrs. FISH. Hello to all of you.
Chairman MELCHER. Mrs. Fish, would you describe in your own
words what your family situation is presently?
Mrs. FISH. I am here in behalf of my mother.
Chairman MELCHER. I think you ought to move those microphones
a little bit closer to you.
Mrs. FISH. OK. I probably would not need these microphones because
I have a real, good, loud Hungarian voice.
I am here in behalf of my mother, who is 97 years old. She has
lived with me now for about 7'J2 years. When my mother came to
live with me, she was in fairly good health and was able to get out
and live a fairly normal life, although she had had several episodes
of CVAs, which are small strokes, which left her with partial paralysis
at various times.
So that when she came to live with me, as I said, she was financially
all right and physically fairly good. She also has a severe
heart condition.