Couple hope for better year

[okarol]

Couple hope for better year

By JENN WIANT - jwiant@nwherald.com
Jan. 7, 2008
 
HARVARD – Last year was a tough one for Theresa and Larry Marchetti, culminating in their apartment being robbed a few days before Christmas.

The thief took prescription medication and Theresa’s wedding ring and smashed the TV and computer monitor.

Theresa Marchetti, 39, is having a hard time getting her insurance company to pay for refills of the medicines, which she uses for daily migraine headaches that result from being almost completely blind.

After the Dec. 19 robbery, the couple spent Christmas at home, which was unusual for them, Marchetti said.

“I just didn’t feel like going out,” she said. “I’m afraid to leave now because I don’t want something to happen to [her kitten, Flash],”

It’s just been one thing after another for the Harvard couple, but Marchetti has managed to stay in good spirits.

“What else am I going to do?” she said. “I do my crying thing, just like when I went blind.”

Marchetti cried for two weeks when she lost her site in 1996. Then she decided she would cry only in the shower. She showered three times a day for several months but now only does so every day or two.

Health problems, unemployment

Marchetti is diabetic and has to give herself dialysis four times a day for kidney failure.

She has had a kidney transplant and is on the waiting list for another.

Larry Marchetti’s health is better, but he has had trouble finding work. The 58-year-old works as an estimator for an asphalt company each summer, gets laid off each winter, and usually gets a job delivering auto parts. But this year, he did not get his job back because of layoffs at the auto parts company, Theresa said.

The couple is scraping by on Theresa’s salary as a manager for a Wisconsin fireworks company and what they saved over the summer, but between rent, food and medical bills, they constantly are struggling.

Being robbed last month just added to their problems.

The Marchettis left their apartment about 7 a.m. Dec. 19 and were gone all day at doctor’s appointments and visiting family, Theresa said. When they returned about 7 p.m., their locked door had been forced open and their TV and computer monitor smashed.

It was the second time their apartment had been burglarized in two years.

The burglars might have seen the stacks of boxes from a pharmaceutical company sitting in the hallway and expected to find a stash of drugs, Theresa speculated. But instead, they found only bags of sugar water, part of her daily dialysis regimen.

“I only had a couple of bottles [of prescription medications] that were half-full, and they took those,” she said. “I think they were mad that there wasn’t more.”

The smashed TV and computer monitor cut off two of Marchetti’s lifelines to the outside world.

She uses a computer for her home-based job with Spectrum Pyrotechnics of Reeseville, Wis. Because she has only spotty vision in one eye, she has a computer that can read aloud to her. The 36-inch TV screen was large enough that she could make out what was happening.

The TV they now use is too small for her to see and too old to connect to their VCR or music service.

Harvard Diggins Library Director Harriet Roll said Theresa  had called the library to see whether she could borrow a monitor.

“We don’t usually loan out equipment because we don’t normally have equipment,” Roll said.

But she did have a monitor, which she checked out to the couple for three months.

“I’m hoping by then they’ll have an insurance settlement and can get their equipment replaced,” Roll added.

Moving forward

Harvard Police Chief Dan Kazy-Garey said no one had been arrested in connection with the burglary but added that police officers had not finished their investigation.

Theresa Marchetti said she was not optimistic that police would make an arrest.

“I’m not holding my breath,” she said. “I’ve never had that kind of luck before.”

But in general, Marchetti is not a pessimist.

“I’m hopeful that things smooth out and that we have health,” she said. “I’ve got the happiness, and health is more important than finances.”

http://www.nwherald.com/articles/2008/01/08/news/local/doc477c711833d64177541614.txt