Call for Action team helps mother who begs on the street so that she and her daughter can survive

BELLEVILLE, Mich. (WXYZ) - ”Just keep swimming and you’ll get to shore.” 

That’s what 41-year-old Linda Edwards tells her 6-year-old daughter Lyndia.  She tells her every night, that life will get better, as long as they don’t give up.

You see during the day, Linda is a panhandler, who begs for money along the Rawsonville Road exit ramp to I-94 in Belleville.

It’s not that Linda is lazy and has never worked a job.  Linda says for 15 years she worked as a nurse’s assistant.  But she lost that job in 2006.  Then she lost her home and her car.

As for her dignity, she says, she lost that the first day she started begging for money.

“It is absolutely terrifying being out there on the street all alone, never knowing what will happen next”, she says.

Last week, 7 Action News reporter Julie Banovich started working to help Linda change her life.

Right away, Julie found Billy Salamey, the owner of Budget Towing in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

For days now, Billy and his employees have been collecting donations for Linda and her daughter - donations in the form of checks and cash that now total almost $7,000.

At the same time, the Call for Action team has joined the effort as well. We’ve been looking specifically for transportation for Linda. That’s how we found Dave Benkoff, a professional painter in Keego Harbor.

Dave has agreed to give Linda his 1997 Dodge Ram passenger van absolutely free.

Linda doesn’t know any of this yet.  So now, we are about to give her the good news.

“Linda, the good news tonight is, as of tonight we have collected close to $7,000 for you and Lyndia, to improve your life,” I tell her.

“Oh man, I can’t believe it.  I’m just so grateful, grateful to you, to everyone who has worked to help me over the last few days.  God told me he would take care of us and he is doing  just that,” Linda says with tears streaming down her cheeks.