An elderly couple from East Penn Township spent 11 days without their only means of communication with family and medical services, and they believe it had to do with the recent Verizon strike.

Mary Ann Hall, 84, and her husband John, 86, were without phone service from May 9-May 20.Thanks to their persistence, their phone is back on, but they're warning other seniors on a fixed income who can't afford wireless service on top of their landline."There must be other seniors out there that this has happened to," Mary Ann Hall said.The Halls have lived on the same secluded lane near the village of West Bowmans for 50-plus years. For the past 25, they've been on a fixed income.Phone service on the hilly lane has always been a little more sensitive than it is in other areas, Mary Ann says, but they've never had a problem like they have had since May 9."It's connected, but it buzzes like crazy. Our family lives in California so they can't reach us," Mary Ann Hall said.Verizon workers have been on strike for the past four-plus weeks. The strike includes nearly 40,000 workers, according to published reports."I realize you have the strike, so you've got a problem. I know this never would have been happening if you didn't have a strike, but it's sort of a problem with our age and everything else," John Hall said.The situation is especially dire because Mary Ann Hall is battling lung cancer - despite never smoking, as she points out.Her prescriptions would cost her $23,000 per month if not for a special program that requires her to be in touch with the pharmacy by phone each month."I have one prescription I take for my lung cancer. It's extremely expensive," she said.So on May 9, their phone started buzzing loudly, making it impossible to communicate with the person on the other end of the line. After a friendly neighbor loaned them a cellphone, they called Verizon.Six days later a technician came - and told them that the strike had slowed response times. But he left without successfully fixing the problem."They were looking for some kind of box up here to improve the service," Mary Ann said.When they tried to follow up on the appointment, they were initially told that there was no one available to respond. They've had promises of getting another technician to return, but those appointments have come and gone."We've frequently called, but they said our engineers are out on strike and there's nothing we can do," she said.They contacted elected officials. They filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission, which said they've been getting many complaints from Verizon customers.On Friday, the Halls were at home when they noticed they had a message on their answering machine.It wasn't from Verizon, but it let them know that the service was back.Mary Ann said that she's happy to have the phone back, but worries about other seniors in their position."How much does an old person have to complain?