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Cherisse Halsall walked around the corner form ou studio and paid her a visit this afternoon. She learned how this feisty senior citizen is fighting to maintain her independence even as her house crumbles down around her. Here's that story.

This leaning yellow wood house on Wagner's lane, has certainly seen better days.

It's the home where Cimbellin Waters raised her family, the house in which she set the table for Christmas dinner, year after year, but that was then, and this is now.

Now this table, like the floor it stands on, is on an incline. It's why Cimbellin kids prefer to bring her to their house to celebrate the holidays but that's something she desperately wants to change.

We stopped by for a chat with the 84-year-old this afternoon and she told us how much the house has deteriorated.

Cimbellin Waters, Seeking Assistance
"The house drop down, drop down from all the posts that it was on that we had down, so at the back he had put on a bathroom for me and that is going down also. The son was living here and he had put on a piece where the woodlice they took it over and eat it up to nothing. Even upstairs in my bedroom, I have gotten one of my nephews to come and spay it for me and he promised to come back doing the spraying for me, because the woodlice took it over together. Thats the most you see is falling."

Then there's the roof ….

Cimbellin Waters, Seeking Assistance
"Well, my son had fixed the part of the front, part of the roof. He had bought some zinc and fixed the front part but then the rain would come for a long time and when it rains it leaks and my bed right beside me and in his room it drips in there too the part where drop, so it always leaks when it rains there."

And while the leaky roof is a frustration for waters, the real pain is getting up and down the stairs.

Cimbellin Waters, Seeking Assistance
"I say look how I used to go to church, getting ready to go to church and when I would realize I'm getting late you'd hear me run down that stair and I say look how I used to run down this stairs and now I have to be counting my steps to get down. Sometimes my tears drop."

And while she may get sad from time to time waters is also fearless, she still goes out on her verandah in the mornings despite the hazard it's become.

Cherisse Halsall:
"Your house has a verandah that overlooks the whole street, when you go out there in the morning, what are you looking at?"

Cimbllin Waters, Seeking Assistance
"Just the passers by."

Cherisse Halsall:
"Are you scared though the way the boards are?"

Cimbllin Waters, Seeking Assistance
"No, I ask God to guide my feet. My children tell me not to go out there."

Cherisse Halsall:
"But you still do it?"

Cimbllin Waters, Seeking Assistance
"I still go in the morning and get the little fresh air for a couple of minutes and then I would get up and go inside back."

"My pastor came and told me not to go out there, the reverend. He told me sister Cimbellin don't go out there on that verandah."

And with all its defects the house that Waters calls home is all but condemned, but she says she's not leaving.

The reason has to do with her late husband.

Reporter
"This is the house your husband bought."

Cimbellin Waters, Seeking Assistance
"He bought it for me. My daughter and my son tell me to move out, you don't see the house going down? And I say yes but I'm comfortable because I sleep when I want and I get up when I want."

Ms. Waters turns 85 on December 21st. If you'd like to help her you can call our office at 227-8337.