Ella Edwards, the mother of a college student who died in 2009 unexpectedly launched an online petition asking the loan company First Marblehead Corp to forgive a $10,000 student loan taken out by her son Jermaine Edwards, that she she could not afford to repay,
Edwards, a 61-year-old who works part-time as a seamstress, had gained over 195,000 signatures for her online petition on the website Change.org. Her son was only 24-years-old when he died of “natural causes.” He was studying music production.
She joined Jacque Reid for her segment “Inside her Story” this morning on the Tom Joyner Morning Show to explain her story and plea with the loan company to forgive her loans.
After a tearful plea on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, radio legend Tom Joyner told Ms. Edwards he would pay off her son’s loan that currently totals $10,849.14.
Read her original petition below:
My name is Ella Edwards. My only son, Jermaine Edwards, was a wonderful young man and the light of my life. When he went to college to study music production, I was happy to cosign his student loans — he dreamt of making a better life for himself and I wanted to help him do that. But then Jermaine died suddenly in 2009 at just 24 years old. That’s when American Education Services (AES) and National Collegiate Trust (NCT) turned my son’s dream into a nightmare for me and the two year old son he left behind.
Jermaine had three student loans when he passed — two from the federal government, and one private loan. The federal loans were forgiven within a month of his death. But AES is refusing to forgive the loan.
Jermaine was my only child, and after his death, I was so devastated I could barely get out of bed in the morning. I requested an early retirement from my job, losing much needed retirement benefits. Since my son’s death, I have been under doctors care. I am 61 years old and I have been trying to work to make Jermaine’s loan payments. I am trying to pay off Jermaine’s loan, but I simply don’t have the money — and because of my crushing depression, I am barely able to work at all. To make matters worse, Jermaine left behind a young son whose mother doesn’t have many resources. Therefore, she relies on me to help support Jermaine’s son.
Nobody told me when i cosigned the loan that I would be forced to pay them back even if my son died. Jermaine never had an opportunity to use his education and I can’t use it either. I need help to get this loan forgiven and to change policies that will protect students and parents after the death of a student.
article courtesy of BlackAmericaWeb.com
