By Blake Nelson, The San Diego Union-Tribune

SAN DIEGO — An elderly couple huddled over a long to-do list.

“So you’re going to cash the check …,” said 75-year-old Warren Wiscott.

“And then go get groceries,” finished Winona Wiscott, 72. “Then you can go to the pawn store.”

A voice booming out of a nearby speaker added another worry: “Do not leave your cash just sitting out somewhere because someone may come and take it.”

The cash, luckily, wasn’t real. Nor were the Wiscotts: Warren and Winona were only characters assigned to Amy Zuill-Smith and Anna Maybury, who in real life are 37 and 49. However, the hurdles they faced trying to pay for food, rent and other necessities were anything but fiction.

Zuill-Smith and Maybury were participating in Interfaith Community Services’ Empathy-Bu

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