I guess I'm just a hard-hearted S.O.B. but ... somebody please explain to me why forgiving her mortgage is any more "appropriate" than forgiving any (or all) of the other defaulted mortgages Fannie Mae holds? Sheesh, she and her hubby bought the house in 1970, so they owned it for 30+ years, then she took out a mortgage? Stupid. A reverse mortgage would have made more sense, in her case, but even those don't work too well if the person lives longer than they expect to -- as happened to a close friend of mine, who lived several years beyond when the income stream from her reverse mortgage ended.