Irene's story

To whom it may concern: My 20 year old daughter, Ashley, was killed in action a year and 3 months ago in a service-related accident in Kuwait. She was in the Army National Guard. While driving a military ambulance transporting patients, she was fatally injured in a rollover accident. After her death, my husband and I went through extreme difficulties, each of us trying to deal with our pain in different ways. Depression, drinking, and sleeping pills were how we coped with the loss of our daughter. My husband lost his job and his car. Since he was unable to find another job, we fell behind on our mortgage payments. My house is now facing foreclosure. Although most of our family members are American citizens, my husband was in the process of getting his residency in the United States, but back in 2004 he made a mistake and committed a felony. We were too slow in responding and failed in solving my husband's problems, because we were focused on our highest priority at that time, our children. My husband is now in jail because of a DUI, and because of his felony (2004), he is going to be deported to Mexico upon his release, which could be at any moment. I am begging you to help us to advocate for us and to help us to keep our remain family together. I am asking you to consider the sacrifice that my daughter made for this country - our country - and to understand the grief that we are suffering in this horrible situation. It has been very hard dealing with the loss of our daughter, whom we loved more than our own lives. We did not mean to be in this situation; it all happened so slowly that we did not realize the nightmare that we would be living. Our 14-year-old son Kyle has been become very depressed through all of this. I have tried to communicate my situation to so many politicians, organizations, and the National Guard - and it is devastating to us that no one in our country has the ability or courage to fight for our family like our daughter did for them. Almost everyone is referring me to someone else, and even worse, I made the mistake of hiring a dishonest lawyer who lied to me. It seems like everyone directs me to believe or do something different. It is breaking our hearts that we find no one who has compassion and the ability to help us. Through all of this, we are losing our home to foreclosure. This was my daughter's home and my memories of her are here; even though the government gives help for banks to help people like me, they are not doing anything. My remaining family is all that I have - I don't think that my son and I can survive without my husband. The loss of my daughter has been unbearable. My family has gone through a lot of pain and I cannot imagine our life with another member of my family gone. Please help us. We are in desperate need. Sincerely, Olivia Segura 326 cloverleaf court Dekalb Illinois 60115 815-505-6478