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Mortgage Forgiven After 90-Year-Old Shoots Herself

Fannie Mae dismisses foreclosure action after House hears of woman's plight
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 4, 2008 6:06 AM CDT

Fannie Mae will let 90-year-old Addie Polk keep her house and forgive her mortgage, the Akron Beacon-Journal reports. The widow shot herself in the chest Wednesday as deputies arrived to evict her from her home of 40 years. Rep. Dennis Kucinich raised the Ohio woman's plight in the House yesterday morning as members prepared to vote on the bailout bill and by afternoon the foreclosure action was dismissed.

"Just given the circumstances, we think it's appropriate," a Fannie Mae spokesman said. Polk, who is in the hospital and expected to recover from the apparent suicide attempt, had taken out several loans on her house after the original mortgage was paid off in 1982. Her husband died in 1992. "She said it was a crazy thing to do, now that she's had time to think about it,'' a neighbor said. ''You know, the good Lord works in different ways. Maybe what's happened to her will help a lot of other seniors in this country.'' (More Akron stories.)

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