I honestly don't know where to turn. I grew up very poor and had no idea that there was such a thing as financial aid for college. I just figured it was for rich kids! So, I married, had kids, divorced, remarried, had a child, blah, blah, blah. At age 43, I decided I wanted to fulfill my lifelong dream of being a special ed teacher. So, I went to college with school loans. I graduated in 3 years and started working. We had struggled so hard for those three years with me not being employed so I did forbearance and all that for the first little while. Then, I paid fine for a few years. Well, my husband lost his job and I ended up in default. I went through rehab where I had to make 3 monthly payments, I think. Then, everything was fine again but the loan had grown to a huge amount by this time...nearly $60,000.
Then, my poor husband (who had just turned 70) was hurt in a tornado we had here in Jackson. He's not been able to work since. He had a part time job that helped quite a bit but now that's over. He has a retirement check that covers our mortgage and that's it. I think there's $20 or so left over each month. Right after he was hurt, my daughter had an extremely difficult pregnancy and I had to take a 6 month leave to be with her..To make a long story shorter, I ended up in default again. I missed two payments and just couldn't catch up. A company out of CA got my loan and told me I had to make 9 monthly payments of $1167.00. I did that even though it took almost exactly half of my monthly salary. We lost one of our cars and have pretty much messed up our health from eating cereal most of the time. After the ninth monthly payment, the company called and said that, since I had been in rehabilitation once before, they couldn't take my loan out of default and that I had to keep paying them. I tried for 4 more months but we are desperate. So, I finally was able to convince them to lower the payments to $640. My loan is not at $68,000.
There's no way I will ever be able to repay this amount. I'm 60 years old and don't know how much longer I can stand this. The stress had just about killed me. I don't sleep and we're not eating right. My husband is now 74 and in poor health. If I have to retire early to take care of him, I have no idea what we'll do. Plus, my mom is 87 and on dialysis and I have to take care of her too.
Is there anything I can do? I'm desperate. I work in a Title i school but, from what I understand, I can't do the loan forgiveness thing (where it takes $17,500 off your loan?) because I'm in default.
Help!
