DETROIT — Jennifer Cline said having President Barack Obama think enough about her family’s struggles to send a handwritten letter promising “things will keep getting better” was priceless — until she was offered $7,000 for the handwritten note.
That’s when the 28-year-old mother of 2- and 9-year-old boys from southern Michigan, who has been unemployed since losing her job as a pharmacy technician in 2007, decided selling the memento to a persistent autograph collector was a good way to put a dent in her family’s growing pile of bills.
“I needed to do what’s best for my family,” she said Tuesday, adding that she and her 30-year-old husband, Jason, remain staunch Obama supporters. “And this was best for my family.”
The couple plans to use about $3,000 to pay down mounting bills, many of which are related to two forms of skin cancer that Jennifer has battled into remission. The remaining money will be used as part of a down payment on a future home.
Cline said the couple drove to New York on Saturday to deliver the letter to the collector, who hopes it will fetch $18,000, and in return received a cashier’s check for $7,000.
“My husband had to peel the letter out of my hand,” Cline said. “I cried half the way there and half the way home.”
