Fortunately, many others have paved the way through the challenge of caring for elderly parents from a distance.\u00c2\u00a0 I learned yesterday that the local electric company has something called a “third party notification,” so they will contact someone else (i.e., adult children of a senior citizen) before utilities are disconnected.\u00c2\u00a0 That, in itself, is a huge relief.<\/p>\n
In this case, it appears that she did pay the electric bill, but as of yesterday, they hadn’t recorded it.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe the mail is slow.\u00c2\u00a0 I should probably help her set it up for auto-payment, along with the phone bill.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow’s challenge will be to contact some of the folks who send her paper checks (the fruit co-op of which she’s a member, and a couple of brokerages from whom she receives dividend checks) and see if we can’t get those set up for direct deposit.\u00c2\u00a0 That way, she doesn’t have to worry about how to get them to the bank.<\/p>\n
I would be happy to have her live with us, and have extended that offer on a number of occasions.\u00c2\u00a0 However, this is the farm she was born on, that’s been in her family for over a hundred years.\u00c2\u00a0 The pictures on the walls are of ancestors who immigrated around the turn of the last century (or a little earlier); there is her grandparents’ framed marriage license (in German, of course).<\/p>\n
I don’t blame her for not wanting to leave.\u00c2\u00a0 This is her home.<\/p>\n
Finding a way to make this work is our problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fortunately, many others have paved the way through the challenge of caring for elderly parents from a distance.\u00c2\u00a0 I learned yesterday that the local electric company has something called a “third party notification,” so they will contact someone else (i.e., … Continue reading