CALAIS – Nichole Nemecek grew up on welfare.

Her mother, father and grandparents on both sides all at one time lived life on the dole.

Now the 35-year-old Pembroke woman is trying to battle her way out of poverty, but the high cost of heating her 1972 mobile home isn’t making life any easier for the woman and her family.

Nemecek is a student at Washington County Community College where she is finishing a two-year program in business management. Her dream is someday to own her own business. She wants to open a laundromat in her hometown.

A Washington County resident for about nine years, Nemecek and her family moved here from Connecticut in search of a new life. Before enrolling in college she worked as a chambermaid at a motel and did home care for the elderly.

But life has been a struggle of late. Besides schoolwork, taking care of her disabled husband and helping care for a 9-week-old baby, she also has to figure out ways to fill her oil tank.

She and her husband and their 16-year-old daughter live in a mobile home, along with her 17-year-old daughter and her boyfriend who moved in after the baby was born.

“They still rent a place in Charlotte, but I was putting oil in her place and my place, but I couldn’t afford both,” she said. The elder daughter and boyfriend were temporarily unemployed, but now are back at work. Her daughter is a certified nurse’s assistant; the boyfriend works for a fertilizer company. The young couple hopes to move into low-income housing in Machias where their jobs are located.

Nemecek’s husband is disabled. He tried to break up a fight between two men three years ago and his ankle was shattered. He now weighs around 500 pounds and keeps breaking the same ankle. Before his period of immobility, he was a supervisor for a flagging company.

Nemecek admits the diet she provides her family isn’t conducive to her husband losing weight, but it’s cheap. “I depend a lot on starch. Starch is very fattening – rice, pasta and potatoes. It fills you up and it’s cheap,” she said.

The family lives on a meager amount. The husband gets around $600 a month in disability. Nemecek gets $360 a month from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, a federal block grant program administered by the state. She also receives $52 for gas to go to school and $170 a month in food stamps.

In the meantime they try to keep warm. She put heating oil in recently, but she had only $30, so it wasn’t much. She won’t know whether she is eligible for fuel assistance until next month.

“Every morning you wake up and it’s cold in the house, you’re wondering, ‘Did the heat get turned down or did I run out last night?'” she said. “I go to the store, get the kerosene and go out there and pour it in there.”

She said she learned of a home heating oil program through a friend that could help her get 100 gallons of heating oil and planned to apply.

When the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program releases funds, she expects to receive another $450. At the current price, that is roughly 130 gallons of oil.

“There is no turning your heat on and not worrying. There used to be,” she said. “I do remember I’d walk by my thermostat and it would be set up to 75 degrees and I wouldn’t even blink an eyeball. Now if my heat is up over 68, I say, ‘Who turned the heat up?'” She fears she’ll run out of fuel before spring arrives. She also worries about keeping the baby warm.

Nemecek improvises. She washes excessive amounts of laundry to take advantage of heat from the dryer. She uses her oven to warm the home. She closes off rooms.

“I am hoping it is not going to be cold,” she said.

For a pre-Christmas gift, she gave her 16-year-old daughter a small space heater for her bedroom. She also gave her wallboard and insulation, and they are redoing her daughter’s room so it will be warmer.

Nemecek admits that her road chosen of being on welfare was not right, but said it was all she knew. Inertia takes hold, and few struggle to escape.

“I find that when you are on welfare, it is very easy to give up hope,” she said. “It’s very easy to stay home and do nothing. It’s not that you choose to; it’s like after a while your body won’t let you do anything else.”

There also are fears. “If you go to work, you feel like, ‘I’ll lose my medical, I’ll lose my food stamps, I won’t qualify for oil. What am I going to do?'” she said. “But if I go out there and work, I might not be able to get all those other things that are helping.”

Nemecek says school has made a difference. “You have to start somewhere and then make a goal,” she said.

She offers no apology. “I should have started younger,” she said of her welfare years. “[But] you can’t give up on people.”

This month she will be the first in her family to graduate with a college degree, an associate of arts, and she plans to look for work.

“I have to go find a job that will give me a meager income to survive until I figure out how I am going to fund and start my business,” she said.

In the meantime, she is focused on keeping oil in the fuel tank, even if it is only $30 worth at a time.

Next: A Milo family struggles to cover the costs of heating their home.

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