The mail floods in about story of homeless women w/ daughter with cancer (there is a twist 2 story)

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez23-2008dec23,0,6126919.column

Story of homeless mother and ill daughter brings in the mail

Steve Lopez
December 23, 2008

On Sunday, I reported the story of a 16-year-old girl with leukemia, living with her mother in a Ford Explorer in the parking lot of a McDonald's restaurant while undergoing chemotherapy. Since then, the story has taken a few twists.

----------------------------------------

But the vast majority of readers stood ready to open their hearts, their checkbooks and even their homes to the Himmels. The offers ranged from a few dollars, to food and clothing, to the indefinite use of a currently unoccupied house.

On Sunday night, before the trip to the hospital, the Himmels moved into a Sunset Boulevard motel, courtesy of a reader who offered to pay for several nights of lodging. Two dozen readers and counting have offered housing of some type, and hundreds offered financial help.

"I have a rather roomy 2-story house in Sherman Oaks, close to the 405 and 101 intersections, with an extra bedroom and bathroom on the ground floor that I would be happy to have Kerry and Destiny use," wrote a reader named Lynn.

"We have two spare bedrooms they could use if that would help them out of a very bad situation," wrote Joy, of Northridge.

In the Hollywood Hills, a mother who has three kids and is pregnant with a fourth offered to take in the Himmels. She said her husband is an emergency room doctor, so he'd be able to keep an eye on Destiny.

--------------------------------

Another reader encouraged me to call Winter Kelly, an executive with Canyon News, a chain of Westside weeklies. When I reached her, Kelly told me she had taken the Himmels into her Beverly Hills apartment in 2007 after Kerry Himmel complained of being destitute and asked for help.

Kelly said she gave Kerry Himmel a part-time job calling on advertising accounts in exchange for rent. She could also earn commissions on top of that.

But Himmel decided to leave the job and the apartment after only one month. Kelly said she was surprised by the decision, and concluded Himmel preferred being homeless to working for a living, even though she had a daughter to care for.

When I confronted Kerry Himmel on Monday morning, I reminded her she had told me she hadn't lived indoors in years. So what about that month in Beverly Hills?