UPDATE: I wanted to thank everyone for their help today. We got this from one of our contacts at ACORN: "After about 2.5 hours, the bank agreed to postpone the foreclosure auction on Ms. Leary's house for 30 days. We'll be using that time to pressure them to sit down with her and come to a long-term solution to keeping her in her house."

You wouldn't believe how many e-mails I get every day, pleading with me to help with this cause or that. Usually I delete them because there's only so much I can do about all these problems. But this one (via ACORN - you know, the group Bill O'Reilly loves to hate?) really jumped out at me because it's far too emblematic of what thousands of people are facing right this minute. I can only imagine if my mother was in the same position:

Dear Susan,

I love my mom. Her name is Irene. She's 84-years-old, and she is the most important person in the world to me.

Today, her bank is selling the house she has lived in for 34 years, and it's breaking my heart.

The unbelievable part of it is that OneWest -- the bank -- doesn't even have to talk with my mom before selling her house right out from under her. That's because OneWest is among four big mortgage service companies that haven't signed on to President Obama's program to help stop foreclosures. It's the "Making Home Affordable" plan, and even though OneWest is the recipient of federal bailout money, they are still taking my mom's home away today.

Will you sign a letter to the CEO of OneWest before they sell my mother's home today? Click here. ACORN is sending copies of the letter to the CEOs of the other three banks whose mortgage servicing companies won't sign on to the Making Home Affordable plan (Litton of Goldman Sachs, HomEq of Barclays, and American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc, along with OneWest), because my mom isn't the only one who needs help right now.

But don't misunderstand me: my mother will lose her home today unless we can convince OneWest not to sell her house. Please help her. Sign the letter now. Click here.

I asked my mom to tell me about how she got into this situation -- she's been the same house for 34 years, after all. How did this happen?

Here's what my mom told me:

Your father was receiving dialysis three times a week and suffering from chronic, congestive heart failure. He was vulnerable and realized he was on the verge of passing. He was worried that he'd leave me with $30,000 to $40,000 in credit card debt. With those concerns, we sought advice.

OneWest advised us we would qualify for a loan based on our credit scores and the loan would "solve our problems." They definitely preyed upon our vulnerability.

Your father died a month after we received the loan. Our fixed income was $2,388.81 per month. With his passing, the income dropped to $1,600.00 per month. I continued to make payments, but they kept going up and up. They went up so much that even if my husband was still alive, we could not have made them.

That's how we got where we are: Today, OneWest is selling my mom's house out from under her unless we stop them. Please, please click here to send a letter to the CEO of OneWest.

From the bottom of my heart, and on behalf of the most wonderful woman in the whole world, my mother, Irene Leary, thank you for taking action today.

Sincerely,

Dennis Leary

For Irene and all the other people who are being tossed out by this mortgage company, you know what to do. Let's flood these heartless creeps!