I can REALLY relate to the movie and to the real-life Chris Gardner and his then 5-year-old son!

I've just rebounded last month from an awful almost similar situation where I was in extreme financial hardship and was in poverty, had no job, couldn't ever find one, was stricken from heart failure and being forced to put up with co's playing games, turning me down and ignoring me for employment!! No one would hire me at all!!!!!!!

In the process, I had filed for disability, having had to wait for 5 months, which I was accepted for just last month. But before that, I couldn't even pay the rent, couldn't pay the utility bills, stuff started being shut off because I had no money to pay for ANYTHING, and I was about to lose the apt!!

Had I not been approved and didn't get the retro check, I STILL would have been in that rut and I would have lost the electric and gas service this spring!!!!!!!

Mass Heath coverage had kicked in though (automatically after you file for disability), so I was able to afford my medicine that I have to take for the rest of my life, hospital care doc's apppointments and dental appointments, and I was accepted for Food Stamps.

But all I had to live on was the small pension from two prior jobs - only $540.00 a month!! Not enough to even pay the rent every month.

Getting disability was and is the only thing that saved me and it helped get me out of the horrifying predicament that I was in. I paid up everybody! Now, I'm able to pay the bills and live comfortably without any worries!! With money always in the bank. Life is good for me now!!

But because I have a heart condition, it's rough trying to climb up three flights of stairs to the 4th floor apt., so I have to find an apt building that has an elevator and that houses disabled tenants and allows small dogs. The landlord won't let me have one here, so I'm planning to move anyway.