It finally happened on Friday. Gladys Delgado got her first call about a mortgage foreclosure from one of the 800 clients fleeced by OPFM Inc.

"And where there's one, there's more," said the default mortgage counselor at Tabor Community Services Inc., a nonprofit housing and consumer credit counseling organization.

"I'm assuming we're gonna go into massive overload," she sighed.

Last month, mortgage brokerage firm OPFM filed for bankruptcy. Hundreds of its customers received letters saying they owed payments on mortgages they thought were being paid off diligently. Some were facing astronomical increases in their monthly payments.

Delgado is the only free mortgage counselor for two counties — Lancaster and Lebanon. Her next opening for an appointment is in November.

With the housing market volatile, scary and confusing as it is for many homeowners, Delgado is in high demand.

At 10 a.m. Friday, after she got the call about OPFM, Delgado, vibrant in a shiny magenta blouse and fire red nail polish, returned to business as usual.

She opened her meeting with two clients with a common greeting: "What happened in (insert month here) that you couldn't pay your mortgage?"

In front of her was a young couple and their baby boy, a stack of bills, and a pink rubber beaver wearing a sombrero hat.

The toy belongs to Delgado. Her office at the agency's King Street headquarters, though diplomatically neat, has little treasures tucked throughout. Many of them are presents from clients.

One is a picture of a woman lying awake in bed at 3 a.m., hand on her forehead, listening to the whispers of ghosts. "Mortgage, UGI, J.C. Penney, VISA," they chant.

A small frame reminds clients to "Cheer up! Things could be worse... you could have MY JOB!"

You have three options, Delgado told the young couple in Spanish: Spread the backlog into monthly payments for the next 8 months, take out another lien to settle the balance, or refinance the mortgage with some modifications.

The little pink beaver passed from the child to the mother. She fingered it nervously, as Delgado added up the family's bills.

"Man, talk about cutting it short," Delgado exclaimed, tapping the calculator.

Then the seasoned mortgage pro pulled out a piece of paper and began writing a letter of explanation to the bank.

The first time she did that, in 1989, it took Delgado four hours and a lot of nerves.

Delgado began her career in Lancaster as a recruiter with Pennsylvania Migrant Education, a state and federal program for migrant farm workers and their families.

In the mid-1980s, she left the job to spend more time at home, but after a year, she was visibly bored and depressed. So some of her friends took matters into their own hands.

They forged Delgado's name on a job application for a position with Tabor.

Delgado was hired on the spot, initially to help families transition from temporary to permanent housing.

When she took over as a mortgage counselor, after a year with Tabor, she knew very little about the trade.

Now, when her company sends her to housing conferences across the nation, the speakers there often turn to Delgado and ask if what they're saying is correct.

As a 20-year mortgage veteran, Delgado's heard thousands of homeowners tells their stories of illness, divorce, unrealistic projections of wealth, poor credit choices, predatory lending, leaky roofs and incessant phone calls from collection agents — these are her favorite stories.

Clients have called Delgado in hysterics, saying that collection agents had threatened to padlock doors, or called the homeowner's neighbors and disclosed financial information to them.

One of her clients once came home to find an agent in her living room, telling her daughter that she'd soon be homeless.

"People have got to stop feeling afraid," Delgado said. They have to get educated.

"The most important thing is to ask questions: 'Why is this fee there? Why is the interest rate so high?'" she said.

"They should make it official that people who go to refinance their homes must go through some education," she added.

She's known as a passionate advocate of consumer rights, but Delgado's real talent is flan, she said.

The Spanish caramel custard is a must at Tabor's birthday lunches and any other gathering where it's appropriate to demand flan from co-workers.

Her dream is to open a real Spanish restaurant. Consumers beware — if she finds the perfect spot, Delgado said, "It's two weeks notice and I'm gone."

A Puerto Rican girl from Brooklyn, N.Y., Delgado, 50, said she can't imagine leaving Lancaster County, her home since 1976.

She has five children, eight grandchildren, and a house in the city, and when Delgado walks down the street, former clients shout her name from all corners of the county.

"How you know them?" her husband often asks.

"I can't tell you," Delgado answers.

But here are some common tips she tells her clients:

• "First thing's first," she says. "Come up with a game plan." Whether you're in default or know that you're going to fall behind on mortgage payments in the future, contact your mortgage company and see what it can do for you.

"Most of the mortgage companies will work with people if they get them early enough."

• Open your letters. If you get an Act 91 form — Homeowner's Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program letter — call a housing counseling agency right away.

• Seek budget advice. (Tabor has a consumer credit counseling specialist, known around the office as hard-working Mother Teresa.) How you choose to correct your default depends on your current financial situation and how much you can realistically expect to pay in the future.

• Beware of solicitation letters from lawyers and other mortgage companies, especially if they advocate filing for bankruptcy.

"That is the last thing that should come into play," Delgado said.

• Prioritize your debt. Mortgage payments always come first. Then utilities and car payments. Credit cards and medical debt are "at the bottom of the totem pole," Delgado said.

Tabor Community Services is located at 308 E. King St., and can be reached by calling 397-5182.