Atkinson officer's widow avoids foreclosure — for now

From the Eagle Tribune;

Atkinson officer's widow avoids foreclosure — for now
By Eric Parry
eparry@eagletribune.com

CHESTER — The threat of losing her home is still possible, but Amy Lapham avoided the foreclosure auction scheduled for yesterday.

Lapham, the wife of former Atkinson police Officer John Lapham, and mother of three, said yesterday her mortgage company, Select Portfolio Services, canceled the foreclosure auction and they are negotiating her monthly payment.

"I have to be realistic and I know what I can afford," Lapham said.

She and her husband built the family's four-bedroom house on Fremont Road in 2004, but after John died last summer from leukemia, Amy struggled to make the monthly mortgage payments.

She attempted to refinance her mortgage, but the mortgage company wouldn't budge.

She took a gamble and stopped paying the mortgage in February because the life insurance from her husband would have run out in just a year, she said.

On July 1, she received a foreclosure notice and a foreclosure auction was scheduled for yesterday.

Lapham said she owes a lot more than the house is worth, although she declined to reveal the balance of the mortgage. Town assessing records list the home at $432,900.

Lapham said she would have sold the house and moved in with her parents across the street, but she didn't want her two sons, Matt, 7, and Justin, 5, to lose their father and their home in the same year.

Recently, the house has become less important, she said.

When a 7-year-old boy was killed over the weekend while walking down Route 102 in Chester, Lapham said it made her thankful to just have her family.

"The smiles on my kids' faces are a whole lot more important," she said.

If she is able to stay in the house, Lapham said she will be able to finish a two-bedroom apartment on the left side of the house to generate income.

The apartment is almost finished, but she said she doesn't want to finish the job until she knows whether she will be able to stay in the house.

"I'm very hopeful," she said yesterday.