Disabled grandmother appreciates help during holiday season
Margie Woods knows all too well how life can change in one terrifying instant.
Or even two.
Twice in her 57 years, the Fort Worth native has had to struggle through sudden trauma and learn how to live through altered circumstances, all the while keeping the needs of her children and grandchildren front and center.
A single parent, Woods has been disabled for 30 years since being stricken with a brain aneurysm at age 27.
“In 1993 I had the aneurysm and I even had to learn how to walk again after that,” she said.
Though Woods gradually regained her mobility, she has never been able to return to employment due to other effects of the stroke. Prior to the aneurysm, she worked in office settings, computing and data processing.
A decade ago, after rearing her two children into adulthood, Woods was thrust back into the role of parent when her daughter Monica Woods, 25, was killed in a head-on car crash. Woods was given custody of her grandchildren: 3-year-old twin boys and a baby girl just 3 months old.
“The boys, they remember her very well,” said Woods, who tries to keep her daughter’s memory alive for the boys, now 13, and help the girl, 10, know her mother through recollections and photos.
The children’s father is still in their lives, as well as Woods’ son and his family.
“We’re all trying to work together and do our best for them,” said Woods.
She receives disability Social Security benefits but finances are always tight, Woods says. Her latest problem has been “life without a car.”
Since the engine gave out in her auto last year, her only transportation is Handitran and medical vans for doctors’ appointments. She hopes to have enough money put back for a cash car soon.
During the Christmas season, those $50 J.C. Penney gift cards from the Star-Telegram Goodfellow Fund for each child’s clothes and shoes “really helps a lot,” Woods said.
She has applied for and received them for several years and it is always a welcome event.
Now that the children are older, they enjoy exercising their fashion sense.
“They can pick it all out themselves, and that’s important,” she said. “They have such a great time doing it.”
The doting grandmother said she is looking forward to preparing a traditional Thanksgiving meal with a donated food basket given to the family by other thoughtful people.
Christmas comes next, and Woods expects that will be happy, too.
“I’m here with them and doing the best I can,” said Woods of her grands. “I wouldn’t trade it for nothing in the world.”
How to help
Be a jolly Goodfellow Since 1912, the Star-Telegram’s Goodfellow Fund has provided practical gifts for schoolchildren. Join this tradition by sending a contribution to Goodfellows, Box 1870, Fort Worth, TX 76101. Or go online to goodfellowfund.org and make a secure credit card donation
This story was originally published November 17, 2017 at 10:16 PM with the headline "Disabled grandmother appreciates help during holiday season."