each month, low-income seniors in t...

each month, low-income seniors in the metro-east have about tough choices to make: Pay the heating bill, bribe food or pay for prescription medication?

Sometimes, they walk without a prescribed medicine or pair so they can pay the heating bill. Other times, they live in succession bologna, hot dogs and emancipated milk and bread to pay for much-need medication.

"You don't pay everything. You can't pay everything. You just pay forward everything when you can," said Molly Walker, a 60-something woman from East St Louis. She be pendents on budget billing through her utility company to retain the heat and lights forward while living on a fixed income. "Everybody is in a dilemma in Illinois. The poor are helping the poor, and when something gets a little extra, we help each other out"

Illinois is abiding-place to 1,538,894 people older than 65 Of that population, 138195