When Even Memories Are Gone...Part Five

With this post my hope is to become up to date.  More will happen.  That's inevitable.  But for now...

Ann decided to stay on 24/7 with Marion in exchange for room and board.  This did not make me happy at all.  My thoughts were that Marion would have been better served to continue with Ann as only a day care giver and to have one or two licensed home health care providers cover the additional hours.  Marion's limited income and a small life insurance policy from my cousin would carry that type of care for quite some time.  Again, there was nothing I could do to change what was unfolding in SC.

During the SC events I had made a phone call to Marion's step-son in New England.  He was shocked to hear the news and immediately made a call to his brother in Arizona.  I didn't even know that she had a second step-son!  There was a good deal of rumor flying during this time frame with even the Arizona step-son's ex-wife phoning me with details of the happenings in SC!  I never knew what was accurate and what wasn't.  MT just glossed everything over.  The interest from Arizona diminished when a trip to SC by that party was derailed.  A good thing, I think.  It would only have upset my Aunt Marion to have a memory-loss-created stranger trying to challenge Ann.

My mom continued to phone Marion at least once each week to check on her.  Recently Marion hasn't been feeling well.  Her complaints include a bad cold and cough, poor vision in her left eye, and pain in her left foot causing her mobility to suffer.  Regardless, she was taken to Ann's family home for the Christmas holiday.

On January 2nd I received another email from the neighbor, Fred.  Ann's family had moved into my aunt's house the day before.  Teenagers and husband had joined Ann.  They were evidently quite comfy using my aunt's van for their move in and more recently the teenage son has taken to driving it.

I left another message on MT's voice mail.  He had promised to call me after a December 20th meeting with Ann, my aunt, and several other parties and not phoned.  I'd left a message for him then.  And now my second message was ignored, as well.  Now I had no idea if he was aware of the 'move-in'.  In the beginning he had assured me that that kind of thing would not be allowed...no way.  I waited a couple days more hoping that MT would phone.  Before that time was up I had another phone call.  This time from Fred's wife.  She had spoken with Ann and Ann had bragged that she had gotten Marion to change her will, leaving everything to Ann.  The take over was complete.

I made another phone call to MT and once again got his voice mail.  I didn't leave a message this time.  I made another call instead...to his supervisor, Tina.  Evidently there is plenty of office space at the Department of Social Services as she wasn't in her office either.  I left a voice mail message with some brief background info and requested that she please return my call.  That was on January 3rd.  She hasn't called.

Last night I wrote a rather terse email to the Lt. Governor of South Carolina.  In the email I expressed my dismay that DSS and Adult Protective Services of Remote County had been so misleading that they had put my aunt in jeopardy of financial exploitation.  I also pointed out that they had lacked courtesy to the extent of not even returning a phone call.

There is little that I can do at this point.  We will continue to phone my aunt to stay in touch and to keep a check on her situation.  All I have left to wish is that my aunt lives to 120 or more.  May she make Ann and Ann's family earn that house, van, truck, and Harley.

(post script:  I seem to have forgotten to mention the funeral director.  He gathered together a bit of information to write my cousin's obituary.  Didn't get it correct.  Had a glaring 'coincidental' error for where my cousin was born.  Used the same town name as where he died...then added to that a completely wrong state!  I emailed a request that it be corrected, at least on the website.  He commented that no one new the correct information...yep, no one there!  My aunt wouldn't have remembered where her son was born, or that he had never even lived in Massachusetts.  However, my mother had supplied all the correct information to the funeral director...on the day Paul died.  I hate it when people lie rather than just admit a mistake.)