Mother of slain soldier gets indefinite reprieve from foreclosure

By Marcus K. Garner

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Monday, Patricia Roberts faced foreclosure on her Lithonia home.

The mother of Georgia's first soldier killed in combat in the Iraq war was in danger of losing the condo where she and her mother Constance Walcott raised the child of her slain son, Jamaal Addison.

But the family got a reprieve Friday from the Aug. 2 deadline by which they had to move out, Roberts told WSB Radio.

"I do not have to worry about being put out in the street," she said. "I don't have to worry about the Monday deadline."

She said attorneys from SunTrust Bank worked out an indefinite reprieve.

Just knowing that I can concentrate on getting Jamaal ready for school ... I just know that God is working all of this out," she said.

Both Roberts and Walcott had lost their jobs, and after adopting her son's child, Jamaal II, learned they would be forced to move.

But until her lawyer can negotiate a payment plan that can keep her in her home, she won't have to fear being pushed out.

Roberts said military families should at least be looked after when a loved one serving in combat is killed.

"When a soldier gives his life for his country, it's the country's responsibility to check up and look out for the family," she said.

She clarified that the help not necessarily come in the form of money, however.

"It's so much more to this as far as what the families go through," Roberts said. "It's never over for us. We move on and try to stay strong. And just to know that that because that they did what they needed to do for their country that their country still cares the people that they leave behind."