Gov. John Baldacci’s budget cuts have severely damaged the home health care system. Disabled and senior citizens now have to be on a waiting list that could last eight months or more.

Such is the case with my aunt, who has an extremely limited range of motion in her arms, as well as a disease called lymph edema – a condition where a person’s lymph glands cannot pull the fluid from the extremeties. Her legs are sometimes so swollen that she cannot walk. She depended on the funding that was cut to provide personal care from a visiting nurse, as she cannot easily leave the house. The last time she left the house, she fell, and needed help from the Auburn Fire Department to lift her.

She had been receiving services until an extended hospital stay caused her to be discharged from health care services; now she has to wait.

I do as much as I can for her. I cannot imagine what others are going through who have no one at all. This is a big world, and bigger when you are alone and disabled in any way.

Perhaps the governor should use his imagination. Some day, someone he loves might be in the same way, and there will be nothing he can do to help.

I understand that budget cuts are necessary, but the areas chosen are not acceptable. As a society, we owe our seniors for everything we have.

I will remember that at the voting booth.

Steven Farmer, Auburn