If a Grandmother Falls in the Woods and No One’s There to Hear Her, Will She Make a Sound?

I don’t often share the details of my own life here. But I think it’s important to say, plainly, that the policies and decisions being made right now on the Big Betrayal Bill will harm me.

I am in my 70s. I live on Social Security and a very small amount of savings I’ve scraped together over the last two years. I don’t have a pension. I don’t have a second income. Aside from what I earn for my writing, there is very little else—maybe occasional help from my adult kids or a few unpredictable dollars here and there.

This year alone, I’ve fallen twice—hard enough to hit my head and get concussions. I had COVID a couple of months ago. Just this past weekend, I was down with the flu. Even now, I still have lingering balance problems—probably from the concussions—and that’s a constant, quiet fear.

I am a breast cancer survivor and worry that the cancer could return.

My teeth are literally breaking, and Medicare already doesn’t cover it. The dentist estimated it would be several thousand dollars to fix the involved teeth in the decades-old bridge. So instead, I eat soft food and hope every day I don’t break it further.

When you are older and alone, the world becomes full of hazards that nobody else sees. A rug. A stair. A moment of dizziness.

They closed my local hospital. Now, if something serious happens, it would take me at least 30 minutes to get to the nearest emergency room—often much longer if there’s traffic. In my family, there is a rather strong history of stroke. Every day, in the back of my mind, I wonder what would happen if I needed help quickly and no one was close by.

I paid into Medicare my entire life.

And it’s not just my life I care about. There are people all around me who are food insecure, who are struggling to make ends meet, who don’t know how they will get through the month.

I am empathic. I feel their pain as if it were my own.

What happens to people like us when the safety nets are shredded further? When the price of everything rises but the checks don’t? When the people making these decisions will never feel the consequences of them?

It matters to remember that for millions of us, these Big Betrayal Bill debates are not theoretical.

We’re here. We are trying to stand upright. We are trying to matter enough to be heard.

If any part of this speaks to you, or if you have your own story, I hope you’ll share it too. We are stronger when we know we’re not alone.