A Letter From the Publisher

By Robert L. Miller

Last summer passed painfully for Margie Brauer, 60, and her husband Ernie, 69, one of the thousands of American farm families who have been battling hard times. Mired in debt, the Norlina, N.C., couple declared bankruptcy in April 1986. Then, facing foreclosure on the 228-acre farm that she and Ernie had worked for 40 years, Margie wrote an eloquent letter to a court-appointed trustee, expressing the hope that she and her husband might somehow retain their self-respect as they went through the agonizing process of giving up their home and land. TIME reprinted that letter (NATION, Sept. 8), prompting an outpouring of mail from across the U.S. and half a dozen foreign countries. / Many of those letters offered not only sympathy but also financial assistance (A LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER, Sept. 22). The money, about $22,000, helped ease a bit of the financial strain on the Brauers, though their total assets of $413,000 fell far short of the $678,000 they owed. Last November, Margie and Ernie watched as their cattle were taken away, but they were allowed to remain in their home until the rest of their property could be sold.

Then, unexpectedly, came an event that Margie Brauer calls the "turning point in our lives." A Dutch-born businessman who lived in Switzerland read about the couple's difficulties. He had always been grateful to the U.S. for the part its Army played in helping liberate the Netherlands in World War II. Acting through an intermediary in February, the businessman (who insists on anonymity) gave the Brauers 100,000 Swiss francs -- about $60,000. Ernie, an Army veteran who fought in Holland during the war, said simply, "Thank God." Margie was more expansive. "I had accepted the fact that things would never be the same again," she said. "It's just a blessing."

The money made it possible for the Brauers and their lawyer to work out a deal with the bankruptcy trustee to buy back the farmhouse and 38 acres. Last Thursday a county clerk recorded the deed in the Brauers' name. Margie, who had taken a job as a hospital secretary to supplement Ernie's $300 monthly Social Security check, sat securely in her kitchen last week. "I look out my window," she said. "Our view is so lovely from the house down to the creek. It has never been so green." But then she added quietly, "So many good things have come to us. In a way I am embarrassed. I still hurt for those who are so much worse off and have no recourse."