The most frustrating thing about Lane and Sandy Minnig’s impending homelessness is that there is no easy villain. No heartless bureaucracy did them in. No greedy corporation. No evil person.
Instead, there is enlightenment. Enlightenment about the vagaries of disease. Enlightenment about how close most of us live to the edge of desperation. Enlightenment about our near-chronic need to affix blame or judge people rather than reach out to help one another.
In July, doctors diagnosed 57-year-old Lane Minnig with tonsil cancer. In August, doctors operated to remove a tumor and part of his jaw, which they had to rebuild.
Then, Minnig began the chemotherapy and radiation that ended in October. The therapy burned his reconstructed face and pushed his weight from 170 pounds to 120. His doctors say he still cannot return to work full time as a cashier.
So tomorrow, Minnig and his wife of 27 years go to eviction court. Barring a last-minute intervention by some good Samaritan, they will soon have no place to live. They haven’t paid their rent since December and have no prospects of being able to pay rent. They can’t make payments on their used Ford Explorer either.
The couple sat in their rented home in southwest Denver last week, stunned.
Sandy Minnig, 56, got laid off in September. She faxed 15 résumés last Monday answering help-wanted ads. That’s been the drill for the past three months.
The other drill has been something the middle-class couple never before experienced nor contemplated:
Asking agencies for money.
The United Way, the Red Cross, The 700 Club and other groups have heard from the Minnigs.
“They told us there were no funds because of Hurricane Katrina, etc., etc.,” Lane Minnig said.
“They told us that after the first of the year, these places would have their money replenished,” added his wife. “They haven’t.”
Attempts to borrow money have not been successful either.
Lane said he talked the other day to someone at the state office for unemployment services. But he’s not yet unemployed. He clings to his job even at reduced hours in order to keep access to health insurance.
“When I saw the hospital bill from his surgery, I like to fell through the floor,” said Sandy. “It was $161,000 for the hospital alone.”
A social worker found someone to cover Lane Minnig’s health insurance premiums through February. After that, he’s not sure where he’ll turn. He hopes he can get back to work enough hours to pay the premiums. But there’s still the matter of housing and transportation.
“I think there should be a mediator and/or counselor with a financial institution where you can present what you need,” he said. “When you go back to a full-time schedule, you can replenish that money to them in a time frame.”
He’s talking about low-interest loans to high-risk borrowers. It’s not an easy marriage.
So as brochures from public and private agencies collect on a living room end table, the Minnigs rack their brains.
“If someone offered me a job to do accounts receivable or accounts payable, I’d do it in a heartbeat,” Lane Minnig said, selling his 20-plus years in cashiering rhetorically.
Even with a new job, however, there’s no guarantee anyone would offer him health insurance.
“I started working on a ranch in Mills, Neb., when I was 14,” he said. “I used to get up at 4 a.m., go out and milk the cows, eat breakfast and go out and cut hay.”
Now, he goes to the phone to call for help.
“We’re not asking people to feel sorry for us,” said Sandy Minnig. “We’re asking for people to give us respect. We’re trying. We didn’t ask for him to get cancer. No one ever does.”
Jim Spencer’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 303-820-1771 or jspencer@denverpost.com.
