There has been a lot of talk about the larger financial consequences of the current mortgage crisis. I’m even guilty of discussing the concerns of the wealthy lenders before looking at the real victims of the crisis. Hopefully I can right that wrong now.

In today’s NY Times Bob Herbert brings us a look at the personal side of the mortgage crisis with the story of one family that is losing their home to predatory lenders.

“The people that wanted to put through the loan called me about a hundred times,” said Rosa Dailey, who is 65 and going blind and needs an oxygen tank at times to help her breathe. “I kept telling them no, because I didn’t think we could afford it. But they kept saying how it was to our advantage. So I finally said: ‘All right, let’s see what we can do.’ ”

What they did was rope her into a mortgage she couldn’t afford. The company inflated her income and the value of her home on the applications to get her a loan she shouldn’t have qualified for. When they began to slip behind on their original mortgage the lenders returned.

On Aug. 8, 2005, a representative of the Argent Mortgage Company took Ms. Dailey from the Merrill Avenue house to her sister’s bedside at Kindred Hospital. There the women signed papers for a loan that they were told would bring their monthly payments down to a manageable level.

Betty Jones was dying. Ms. Dailey’s eyesight was too poor to read the papers shoved in front of her. Both women were frightened and confused.

“I was told that was the only way I could save the house,” Ms. Dailey said.

Thousands of dollars in additional fees were heaped upon them. And the required monthly payment was more than they could possibly have afforded.

Now with her sister and mother gone, Ms. Dailey has been left fighting to stay in the home she had thought she was protecting. Her payments on her mortgage are so large she hasn’t been able to keep the heat working in the house or keep up with maintenance.

I asked Rosa Dailey yesterday how she’d be spending her Thanksgiving. She said her money for the month had run out, so she wouldn’t be doing anything special.

“I’ll be right here,” she said. “I’ve got some corn flakes and canned vegetables. That’ll be my Thanksgiving.”

As we think this Thursday about all we have to be thankful for, we ought to pause for a moment to remember the thousands of families who no longer have a home to gather in. As we consider packages to bail out the financial institutions who hoped to profit from fraud and abuse of economically vulnerable Americans, we ought to remember who really needs our help, average citizens like Ms. Dailey.