SPC David Tscherny joined the Army in 1993 and served until 2009. We asked him to tell us about the last year of his life and how it felt to have a furnished home, “We had to go to Europe, we had a place in Los Alamitos but we had to leave because my wife’s family is from Romania. Her father was not well and needed help. It was harvest season and the chores needed to get done. They needed our help.”
We did not realize when we left that my wife’s caregiver program stipend would be canceled cutting our income in half. (Even though she was doing the same job.) We are still waiting for my wife to get reestablished on her caregiver stipend. Moving back from Romania required 3 separate trips. I left first in September and went to the VA to see if I could get help or assistance for my family when they returned. Nothing. Then my wife and oldest daughter traveled in October. (Every month when I got my pension I could buy a plane ticket and bring someone else home.)
In the meantime, my wife and I were paying $80 for housing application fees and staying in hotels, motels. When we were stable I was on a steady diet, eating my greens but this whole time it’s been draining, having to eat fast food-which is killing me. My pension’s not the best so we were completely broke. It’s been a tough, tough road. Plus, I still have my medical conditions, my wife is still caring for me. Everything has been siphoned from us, you know, money then health, metal stress, everything. We finally found this place. But, we are still broke and recovering. It sucked us dry.
“We have never had nice things like this (SPC Tscherny looks around the room) we have never had pretty. We collected things in the past and made it into a home but we have never had this. In my life, I would never be able to furnish a place like this. With 3 kids too, imagine.”
“What this cures is the mental stress, we can start nesting again and feeling the unity as a family. We no longer have to feel like… what’s the word… like hobo’s or vagabonds. We had just been moving around, since September I have lived in at least 7 different places, staying with friends, hotels, there was a time when I was living in the back of my Suburban, that’s how bad it was. Now we can get back to normal, find some stability. We have a foundation to build on. This is so calming, to have some pretty in my face after all we’ve been through.”
