Letter to Editor: LFP Widow on Fixed Income Not a Myth

To the editor:

This is written in response to Mr. Nick Stewart's posting in the Patch on Oct. 25.

Dear MYTHER Stewart: I have been called a lot of things in my time:  "MISS  MISSUS  MRS   MOM  MS  MASTER (of social work) but I have never been dubbed a MYTH !!!  

I am literally "a widow on a fixed income with limited assets."  

Take your quoted average LFP household income of $94,000 and reduce that by 2/3rds and you have my approximate income.  No myth.  Just the facts. I have lived in LFP for 50 years this past July, raised my four children here and am still residing in my beloved older home, with a big yard and lots of upkeep. Some have rather rudely suggested that I should move, to which I give my now- deceased  wonderful husband's famous retort:  "Go hang it in your ear."

I do not want to be forced out. Yes, property tax increases are not the only issue, but the also ever-increasing user fees. How about an "administrative fee on your septic tank"?  Is that punishment for not agreeing to an horrendous expenditure to bring a sewer line up the steep hill to my house and then to have to deal with ever-increasing sewer bills as well? 

Since I know you like to deal with issues in depth, I want to reassure you that my septic tank and drainage field are alive and well and most of all, ecologically sound. Or what about non-response for many years to pleas for any significant traffic-calming measures on our street, especially at the blind curve where my driveway enters the road unseen and unanticipated. No, I am no myth.  I am the real deal.

I know that "Distance lends enchantment"( and I realize you are not even a Lake Forest Park resident), but in certain cases it may lead to a clouded view of reality.  I am living that reality. Thanks. Just sign me  "Alert Alive Aware Grandma" and yes   "Grandma still drives."

Jean Bryant

Lake Forest Park