TRACEY UNDERWOOD
Fort Pierce

Stroke keeps mother of five jobless, helpless

Tracey Underwood doesn’t want to ask for help.
She wants to work and provide for her four children, take them to church and buy them shoes and school clothes, and bikes to ride through the neighborhood.
She wants to give them a good life. But she can’t. Not without help.
Tracey, 37, suffered a stroke in June that left her paralyzed on her left side. She can’t cook, drive or even write. She can barely get around the house.
“Cooking has been left up to my daughter and my son,” she says. “And I can’t do my own hair; my daughter has to do my hair. Even eating is difficult.”
Originally from Clinton, N.C., Tracey moved to Boca Raton about 20 years ago. A single mother, she worked as an administrative assistant and later as a telemarketer. But one income wasn’t enough to support a family of five.
“I’m a strong person,” says Tracey, who receives no child support. “I said, ‘I can’t let this beat me, I won’t let this beat me.’ But it beat me. It had to really sink in before I realized I couldn’t do it on my own.”
Last year, she and her children — Tion Gabriel, 19, Termaine Cime, 16, Tanasia Cime, 15, and Torrian Bradley, 7 — became homeless. She sought shelter for her family at the Lord’s Place in Boynton Beach.
“I couldn’t continue to pay the high rent that was getting higher every year,” Tracey says.
With the help of the Lord’s Place, things were starting to turn around this year.
“I had just started a brand new job June 19,” says Tracey. “I worked three days: that Monday, that Tuesday and that Wednesday. That Wednesday night was when I had my stroke.”
Tracey was hospitalized for a month. The teens were often left on their own for days or weeks at a time.
When Tracey was released from medical care, the family was reunited in a government-subsidized housing project in Boynton Beach. Food stamps help keep them from going hungry, but medical bills continue to mount.
Tracey, says Odetta Gintoli of Families First of Palm Beach County, which is helping the family, “contacts and makes her own doctors’ appointments and advocates for herself and tries to stay stress-free so that she can heal.”
Medicaid covers the cost of doctor visits and the two blood pressure medications Tracey takes daily, but Gintoli says the coverage will be reevaluated in December. Tracey says physical therapy that could help her regain strength in her left hand is not covered, so she has gone without.
“I just miss being independent, to be honest with you,” Tracey says. “It’s really, really hard.”

Tracey Underwood’s wishes

What she asked for: Money to pay bills and buy clothes for her children and herself, bicycles for the kids, a computer printer and an electric can opener.

What she received: $400 in Wal-Mart gift cards, bikes and toys for the kids, and clothing for the family. Donations that have come to Families First will be applied to bills. She also received a computer printer and scanner.

What she said: “I’ve been blessed this year, and I’ve come to the realization that there are still people in this world who have kind hearts,” says Tracey. “I didn’t have to go through Christmas 2007 alone.”

Nominated by: Families First of Palm Beach County
Address: 601 N. Congress Ave., Suite 430, Delray Beach, FL 33445
Phone: (561) 243-8668.
Its mission: To create opportunities with families to embrace their hope, strength and potential for change.