At 71, Fredericka Nelson should be the one being taken care of. After 40 years of cleaning offices to support a family on her own, the Brooklyn mother of six and grandmother of 21 thought she’d enjoy growing old in peace. Read more Read it in print

Michael Gruson, a successful attorney, got the worst possible news from his doctor in March 2005: His persistent headache was more serious than anything an aspirin could cure. It was the symptom of a malignant brain tumor. A partner at Shearman & Sterling and the head of an eight-member household, Gruson, 69, was accustomed to success and responsibility. Now, with stage-four brain cancer, he was at life’s mercy. Read more Read it in print

We spend more money on healthcare in the last months of life than at any other time. It’s when we’re sickest and most in need of medicine, doctors and intensive care. According to estimates, nearly 30 percent of Medicare’s annual $327 billion budget goes to caring for patients in their final year of life. Read more Read it in print

HE WEARS A black hoodie to protect himself from the cold rain. The baby-faced guy is Dominican, probably in his early twenties. He rushes by me at the Graham Avenue L train entrance, pauses and asks, “Matt?” I nod. He leads me down the stairs, examines me silently. Once he’s satisfied that I’m not a threat, he takes $30 from my left hand and pushes a sealed bag of Cheez Doodles into my right jacket pocket. Without another word, he splits for the opposite staircase and races back above ground. I check my watch. It’s 6:30 on a Saturday night under a busy Williamsburg intersection, and I’ve just scored three bags of “Nike” heroin, all hidden inside a re-sealed bag of chips. Read more Read it in print

"IF SOMETHING HAPPENS, you have nowhere to complain,” says Anna, a 38-year-old West-African nanny. “It makes me worried.” For most of her seven-year career as a nanny, Anna has been fortunate to work for two families that have paid her a decent wage for roughly nine hours of work a day. Her duties usually include taking the children for a stroll or to play dates, cooking dinner in the evening and cleaning. Read more Read it in print

Unemployed restaurant deliveryman Jianhua Wang says there’s no help left for him in New York’s Chinatown. Not in this economic climate. “Chinatown is full of compatriots,” he says, “but there are many cheaters.” Read more

The first time the police handcuffed Yolanda Hernandez, her child-sized wrists slipped through the rings, so she handed the metal restraint back to the cops. “You don’t need these,” she said, going peacefully to the police station. “I don’t hurt anyone.” Read more

TWENTY-SIX MINUTES after last call on August 23, a loud pop sent a wave of jitters through the weekend drunks, bouncers, desperate lonely-hearts and wide-awake cokeheads hanging out on the Avenue A strip between East 12th and 14th streets. Just as they settled back into their cigarettes and drawn-out good-byes, another bang! rocked them. Read more Read it in print

IN THE UNITED STATES alone, statistics show that nearly 200,000 women may be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, and more than 40,000 might die from the disease. Read more Read it in print

Recent reports claim that we may have weathered the worst part of the current recession. But the economic slump hasn’t seemed to abate the new development that continues apace on Manhattan’s West Side. As construction workers hammered away at a high rise on the northeast side of West 53rd Street and 10th Avenue last Tuesday, politicians and community members gathered across the street at P.S. 111 to voice their concerns about the severe overcrowding in Hell’s Kitchen public schools projected for the next decade. Read more