The Huff family (Sharon & Tony) lives in the southeastern Kentucky mountains, several miles from the nearest town. They live 2 miles up a one-lane dirt road used by coal trucks to haul coal from the local mine. The road is dusty in dry weather and gets washed out when there’s flooding. Most of their neighbors are kinfolk – Tony’s (age 34) parents (Gene age 55, with emphysema and Renee, age 53, who is healthy), Tony’s brothers (Kyle age 33, Tom age 29, and Bradley, age 15), and Tony’s sisters (Linda 30 and her husband Scott, 30 and their daughters Melody 8 and Susan 6) and Sharon’s (age 38) brother Danny (age 39) and his wife Christine (age 40).
The home is a doublewide trailer that Sharon’s mother bought 2 years ago when she came to live with them. A widow, Orenie, is 76 years old and was in very good health until she recently began to have fainting spells. During one of her spells, she fell in the bathroom and hit her head on the tub, causing a subdural hemorrhage. She was taken to the regional medical center after a headache of 2 days would not stop hurting. Her husband, Charlie, died at the age of 65 of a heart attack. He was a retired coal miner and had “black lung.”
Sharon draws $800 per month social security disability benefits due to asthma and emphysema. She smokes one pack per day of Winston cigarettes, uses an inhaler to help her breathe better and takes Singulair for her asthma. She is slightly overweight, with most of the extra weight in her abdominal area. She was married before to Kevin, but divorced him when their daughter, Teresa, was six months old. She used to work as a nursing assistant at the local nursing home but quit working after a back injury. She was later diagnosed with asthma & emphysema, which along with the back injury, qualified her for social security disability.
Tony drives a truck for the county garbage disposal department. He has to drive an hour to get to his job site, and usually leaves about 4 or 5 AM. Many nights he doesn’t get home until 9 or 10 PM, especially if one of the other drivers calls in sick. He is pleased that with this job, he can purchase health insurance for him, Sharon, and the children after 6 months. He makes $9.50 an hour plus time and a half for overtime work. Tony was out of work for several months prior to this job. After a couple of months of looking for work, he stopped looking and stayed home watching television most of the time. He would fix the car if there were problems with it, and was considered a good mechanic. He did pick up an occasional “odd job,” helping a neighbor paint a house or doing some yard work for someone in town. He got this job when his uncle Charles was elected to a county office.
They are currently in a state of crisis because Orenie has moved out to live with Sharon’s sister Sarah in her Section 8 apartment in town. Sarah convinced Orenie that she needed to file bankruptcy. The bank has notified Tony and Sharon that they will be coming to repossess the trailer soon. Tony and Sharon have been shopping for a trailer. George, their 15-year-old son, says their life has been like a “roller coaster ride” lately as they get their hopes up when they apply for a loan to buy a trailer, but they have been turned down several times because of their poor credit history. They are counting on their income tax refund for a down payment, since they haven’t managed to save any money. They both talk of opening a savings account but never seem to get around to that.
Sharon and Tony have been married for 16 years and have Teresa (17), Sharon’s daughter from a previous marriage; George (15); Kyle, age 13 and David, age 8.
Teresa is a 16- year-old at the county high school. Before high school, she was an honor student, but her grades now are mostly Cs and Ds with a few Bs. She often skips school, especially since her cousin Linda got her driver’s license. They sometimes act as though they are going to school, then drive to town and hang out until school is dismissed. Teresa has recently gotten her driver’s permit, and enjoys being able to drive herself (with mom in the car) to her evenings and weekend job in town at the fast-food restaurant. Sharon and Teresa were summonsed to court for Teresa’s excessive absences. Teresa has become almost more than the family can handle. She flies into a rage when she doesn’t get her way, breaking furniture and punching holes in the walls. Her brothers say she’s “a spoiled brat.” Sharon often gets a “migraine” and “nerves” during these outbursts. Teresa often tells the family that she wants to live in foster care. She spends hours at a time on the computer, sometimes sleeping after school until 9 or 10 PM and then spending until 3 or 4 AM on the computer.
George, a high school freshman, has recently begun to have fainting spells. He becomes weak, loses consciousness and falls into the floor. He also feels tightness and heaviness in his chest. Normally a physically active boy, he notices that he gets tired easily and sometimes short of breath. He has had several tests done: a normal EKG, a normal EEG, a normal echocardiogram. However, he has an irregular heart rhythm and has been referred to a pediatric cardiologist. George, an honor student, dreams of going to college to become a physician or vet or maybe a teacher. In the last few months, he has developed acne, a source of great embarrassment to him. His sister teases him, especially at school, in front of his friends. Sharon recently obtained a prescription for him to use on his face helping clear the acne.
Kyle is 13 and in the 7th grade. He was diagnosed with ADHD more than a year ago and took Ritalin for about a month. Sharon decided she didn’t want him to get “hooked” so she stopped getting the prescription refilled. She has been giving him herbal teas to control his ADHD, made from herbs she gets from her mother. Kyle’s grades have slipped since he went off the Ritalin – he now makes mostly D’s and F’s and the teachers have indicated he’ll probably be held back this year if there isn’t rapid improvement in his school performance. He also gets F’s in conduct because he’s disruptive in class. He loves to fix things, and sometimes brings his or his brothers bicycles into their bedroom to work on. He often “forgets” to put his tools away and “borrows” his dad’s tools without permission. He “forgets” and leaves the tools outside, wherever he happens to be using them. This behavior keeps his father often upset with him. He rarely is able to sit still while the family watches a TV show and will begin to pick on David, until David runs crying out of the room. Both Teresa and Kyle are bad about getting into George’s or their parents things without permission.
David is a second-grader at the local elementary school. His teacher reports that he is especially good in math. He enjoys having his dad help him with his homework. He loves to play with his collection of cars, likes to play with the family’s dogs and cats, and enjoys playing outdoors in every kind of weather. He is very loving with his mom, likes to tag along after his two older brothers, and enjoys playing with his cousins who live nearby.
None of the kids have regular chores they are expected to do. George is the “responsible child, ” helping his mother clean the house, take out the garbage, mow the lawn, fold, and do laundry and other chores as needed. He often ends up cleaning up Kyle’s room because Kyle claims he doesn’t know how, and besides, “it doesn’t bother me to have a messy room”. Sharon does all the family’s laundry and cooks a big meal most evenings. The kids also like it when she buys pizza or hamburgers at the fast-food restaurant. None of the kids like to drink milk, preferring to have sodas. Sharon sometimes spends $40 a week on cokes for them and the cousins nearby, who are in and out of the house all day. She always has cookies and doughnuts for them to eat as snacks and rarely buys fresh fruit. All of the kids are of normal weight and height.
The tension over losing their home has contributed to many arguments between Sharon and Tony. They have both threatened to leave and get a divorce. The kids are present when these arguments take place. The boys get together in the bedroom and wonder what will happen to them.