May 22, 2008 5:30 pm US/Eastern
50 Years, 50 Families: Mancie Means
DUQUESNE (KDKA) ―
The latest 50 Years, 50 Families recipient is a woman who teaches special needs children at a local school, then comes home to care for her own special needs grandchildren.
Mancie Means has a 4-year-old grandson and two other grandkids with ADHD who all live with her.
But for Means, the real challenge is dealing with the bugs and rodents that have infested the home she is renting.
"It makes me feel with sadness to be here in a predicament and I can't do anything about it," says Means, of Duquesne.
Means says her landlord stopped taking care of the home and exterminating. Now, she says roaches come out when the heat or any appliance is turned on.
"They'll come out of vents, go up wall. Even when I cook, you see them coming out of cracks," she says.
The roach problem is so bad, Means says any clean pots, pans or dishes left in the kitchen have to be rewashed again. So she leaves most of them outside.
Means says the patio is the only place safe enough to store her plates, silverware and cookware.
She adds that upstairs there are mice that come in through a hole in the bathroom floor and they are eating through her shirts and leaving droppings in her furniture.
Also, because insect eggs are in the furniture wood, bedding, appliances and virtually everything she owns, Means says she can't take anything with her to her new apartment.
"It's very stressful knowing I have to start all over again, something I already worked hard and put a lot of money into has to just be thrown out," says Means.
But when Means learned that she will be getting $3,000 worth of free furniture from Roomful Express she was overjoyed.
Means will move to her new apartment next month and looks forward to a clean and safe place for herself and her grandchildren.
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
