J. came to New York with the dream that someday his band would become so successful that his family would never have to worry about money.

As the sole guardian of her 15 year old grandson, S. was no stranger to the struggles of everyday life.

42 year old T. was an office manager in Colorado, happily married and busy raising two adolescent boys. Plagued with health problems, she found herself in and out of the hospital, losing weeks of her much needed income.

L. and T. did not account for cancer while planning their future.

F. never thought that she would be a widow by the time she was 48.

D. was a single mother who worked three jobs to provide for her two children and aging mother.

R. was a hardworking husband and father in his thirties. A world away from his birthplace, his young family in New York was now his whole world.