Guardsman Trying To Keep His House From The Jaws Of Foreclosure Gives His Life

August 11th, 2008 | Tags: Foreclosure

Foreclosures are the talk of the town – nay of the country and the world. Statistics and figures stare at you from the newspapers and television screens. Discussions, analysis and conferences as well as much hyped remedial measures to appease a disgruntled country. But foreclosures are something more than that. All foreclosures have a sad tale to tell – tales of individuals whose pain no measuring gadget could gauge.

The story of Gloria Hedges and her tears are just one of the many. In South Ozone Park, Queens in New York, she taped a picture of a burly man in military uniform and hat with a legend “Andrew Seabrooks passed away on 6/21/08” outside a shop. Then she added her phone number so that people would call and know of the prayer service she was going to hold. This unique method was also a way of telling those who knew Andrew that he was no more – having been blown away by a bomb, six days ago, 7,000 miles away in distant Afghanistan.

Andrew had been living in South Ozone Park all his life. A man who loved to sit by the fires of his heart in his home, he had a passion for collecting action DVD’s and tinkering with mechanical jobs. His job as a national guardsman did not make him forget his penchant for good jokes. A crude bomb had hit the vehicle he was travelling in outside Kandahar in Afghanistan. Another friend of his, also from New York had met the same fate.

As word went around Hedges was overwhelmed with condolence messages from all and sundry who knew Seabrooks – starting from the local barber and the grocer. Their nest was a three-storied house painted a light blue. Here she lived with her son Xavier and Seabrooks. Everybody here called Andrew Seabrooks – Drew. For 36 years he had been a resident of this locality with his mentally challenged sister Melissa. Their mother had bought the house towards the end of her life. Before dying she impressed upon her son three things – to look after his sister, his children (including two from a previous marriage) and above all the house.

Today the house like many others is just a breath away from foreclosures. Foreclosures are stalking the locality. He had hoped that his pay in the army would help to stall the foreclosure. Only time can tell.