Members of the family of Waukegan attorney Michael Simmons sent a letter of appreciation to the Illinois Bar Foundation shortly before his death in March from cancer.

“Without your generous donation, we would not have been able to make it financially,” they wrote. “Knowing that our house payment would be paid every month, thanks to your check, has allowed us the comfort of knowing we have a place to live.”

The foundation offers non-taxable subsistence gifts in the form of monthly stipends to help eligible applicants maintain modest but reasonable standards of living when incapacitating illnesses or disabilities occur.

Write to the Illinois Bar Foundation, Illinois Bar Center, 424 S. Second St., Springfield, Ill. 62701, for details if you know of a colleague or survivor who may qualify.

The 15-month illness of Simmons, a former member of the ISBA Board of Governors, used up all of the family's savings in the first six months. Without the foundation's help, the home would have gone into foreclosure.

His wife assisted in the office of his private practice, so together they were the family's sole sources of income until neither could work.

Subsistence also is available to older lawyers or surviving spouses who could not benefit from retirement plans or deferred taxing that would provide income for later life.

With age and physical disabilities adding to problems, lawyers, widows and widowers often need financial assistance to cope with living expenses and medical costs.