A Family On The Edge

Seth Doane is a CBS News correspondent based in New York.

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The Hudy family is living on the edge. Their electricity was supposed to be turned off this week (they got a two-week extension) and their house goes to auction next week because they're going into foreclosure. They're having a hard time keeping food on the table… and trouble knowing what to do next.

For me, the most interesting part of my job is that the camera and my CBS News credentials are a passport into someone's life. I had talked with the Hudys early in the week and by the end of the week – there I was… standing in their living room in Endicott, New York.

In just a couple of days together I learned more about the Hudys than I'm sure some of their close friends know. They opened up to me and there were tears and also concern about being so candid with me. They explained that not only was it humbling to admit that they need help… and to tell a national audience about it… but to know that they're opening up themselves to critique from total strangers.

While we together there was this constant sense of juggling – wondering which ball might drop. Through their ordeal – which has stretched more than two years - they've both lost weight and, at just 37, Mark's hair has started to go gray.

Their troubles started after Mark fell off a ladder while he was working. He was a subcontractor for a cable company and didn't have medical insurance. The fall and subsequent medical problems have changed life. He now suffers from "RSD" which, by both Mark's accounts and what I've read in medical journals, appears to be incredibly painful – a nonstop nagging, burning, shooting pain.

They're living on a disability check and Brenda's income from a local church (where she is a cleaner). As everything has unfolded around them – they've realized that they just can't keep juggling and Brenda told me that she was planning to go to a nearby food pantry for the first time in her life. In the past she'd donated to pantries – now she knew that she needed to go herself.

We joined her on her walk to the pantry… and it was incredibly emotional. I've worked on fourteen stories for this "Other America" series but to experience the process of admitting you need help and the fear and worry that surrounds seeking that help – was hard to watch. That walk – and their story - unfolds in our Evening News piece.