And the blows keep
raining down

First, on May 30^th, her father, David Holder, who she was very close to, died. Then, only two and a half weeks later, on June 18^th, while she was cooking dinner in her home in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, fifteen or twenty police officers broke down the door, and, with no explanation whatsoever, stormed her house. Not until the next day was any reason given – that they were chasing a man whom they believed to be armed and to have run into the Washington’s house.

According to the family’s attorney, Eric Poulos, in all, over forty officers entered the home. They cursed at Yvonne, threw her to the floor and shut her in a room. They threatened her oldest son Matthew, and assaulted her seven-year-old daughter Nashay. They proceeded to ransack the home. As they swarmed up the stairs, an officer trampled to death the family’s kitten.

All the while, Yvonne’s husband, Calvin Washington, - who had a serious heart condition and had recently undergone surgery to implant a defibrillator in his chest – was in the bedroom hearing the entire uproar. He tried to get up but couldn't.

Needless to say, the raid had an extremely traumatizing effect on every family member. Yvonne was especially concerned about her husband in his already fragile condition. She feared he was suffering a heart attack and called 911. The emergency operator advised her on how to care for him while she waited for the EMS ambulance to arrive.

Rev. Herbert Daughtry with the Washington family: left to right, Nashay, Yvonne, Shakena and Matthew Washington

Calvin was taken first to a Brooklyn hospital and then to the Cornell Medical Center where he was already scheduled for an operation. Instead, he died ten days after the raid, on June 28^th.

You might think that following all this, things would quiet down, giving Yvonne a chance to work through her grief about the loss of the man she considered her soul mate, and to comfort and receive comfort from her six children, two of whom are her biological children and four who are adopted. But no, she was plunged even deeper into the storm. "It was like from that day the cops came into my house, it set off a chain of events that’s tearing my family apart," Yvonne explained. "Since my husband died, everything has been going wrong for us."

Calvin Washington was a highly skilled carpenter, but due to his illness, he hadn’t been able to work much for several years. They were having financial difficulty, and he had fallen behind in the mortgage payments on their home.

In early 2001 – no doubt as a result of ferreting out information on a list in public domain - a man, whom Yvonne Washington wishes to remain nameless at present, came knocking on their door. He described himself as a Foreclosure Specialist. "We stop foreclosures," states his business card. Calvin hired him in the belief that he would assist them in saving their home.

To make a long and painful story short, this man took over $4,000 of the Washingtons’ money and did absolutely nothing to help them save their home.

After Calvin Washington died, Yvonne was thrust into the position of dealing with this man. She was totally bewildered and had no knowledge of how the process worked. "It used to be that the only thing I had to do was take care of my children," she explained. "My husband took care of everything else. So when Calvin died, when I say half of me is gone, I really mean it. I’m lost without my husband."

Along with constantly trying to extract more money from her – all in cash, while getting a receipt in return was like pulling teeth – this man assured Yvonne that everything was going to work out fine. He encouraged her to paint the house and renovate the top floor to rent out in order to help meet the mortgage payments. She poured about $10,000 – practically everything she had - into that.

However, the house was sold on Nov. 26^th. Yvonne declared bankruptcy in her son Taheem’s name in the hope that it would stop the sale. The bankruptcy was accepted in the US Bankruptcy Court, and they gave her a meeting of creditors for Jan. 9, 2004. "After that, I thought I had until January 9^th to work something out, so I would at least walk away with something," said Yvonne Washington.

Meanwhile, Christmas was fast approaching, and with all the intense feelings of loss that this first year without her husband brings up, quite understandably, Yvonne wasn’t exactly in a holiday mood. But Nashay, who is now eight, wanted a Christmas and she asked, "Mom, why don’t you have the lights and stuff up yet?" So on December 15^th, Yvonne and her son Matthew drove to the store to pick up a few things they needed to finish decorating. Said Yvonne, "We pulled up in front of our home and I saw a note taped to the door. I told Matthew to go and see what it is. He says, ‘Mom, it’s a Ten Day Notice to Quit.’"

The notice, which was instigated by the original company Calvin Washington did business with, Norwest Mortgage, Inc., states in part, "WELLS FARGO HOME MORTGAGE, INC., as owner of the property demands that you and all others occupying the Premises quit same and surrender possession thereof to the undersigned on or before December 30, 2003."

Yvonne Washington and her four children still living at home have no idea where they can go. Nashay says she’s not leaving the house because her father’s in there; they’re going to have to drag her out. "I’m going to handcuff myself to the door," she declares.

As to Yvonne, she’s having a very tough time of it. "I can’t eat because I’m sick with worry about what’s going to happen to my family," she says dejectedly. "I can’t even get out of the house most days because I’m too depressed. I know I can’t give up, but it’s very hard to hold on. I try to keep myself strong for Nashay, but most of the time she’s keeping me strong. She stays close up under me. One day I was crying so hard she started crying, too, and said to me, ‘Mommy, it’s not fair; I already lost my father. You’ve got to stop crying. I don’t want you to get sick and die, too.’ So I try not to cry in front of her, but I don’t know any other way to get out what I’m feeling. Because I’ve got so much pain inside of me I can’t bear it. Sometimes my heart literally hurts, a physical pain like someone just ripped something out of me."

Matthew finds it astounding that anyone could be so mean and cold that they would persist in doing this to a family even after it’s lost it’s father the way they did. He says of the man who brought them to this pass, "He had no sympathy - not that we’re asking for sympathy - but he just took over and tried to snatch the house right out from under us. My Mom is going through so much right now and it’s like he doesn’t even care."

One person who is trying to help is Rev. Herbert Daughtry, pastor of the House of the Lord Church. He says that he is deeply saddened that Mrs. Washington has to go through all this after losing her husband, and angry because in two years, if this man had been a reputable credit doctor, the house could have been saved. He added that maybe the bank will have a heart and allow her to stay for six months while they raise enough money to make a down payment on another house. "I think once the story is told and people see what’s happening, maybe we can buy some time and we wouldn’t want to have to go through more dramatic ways of stalling them."

He said, too, "What adds to the whole thing is that it’s Christmas time, and the season is supposed to be joyous. That only enhances the pain and anger. But we’re going to keep hoping and working at it, and hopefully something will turn up."

If you can help in any way, please contact Rev. Daughtry at (718) 596-1991.