Ask Sherry: Helping an elderly aunt in the U.S.

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You can ask any question using the form here.

You mentioned helping out your elderly aunt in the US. Did she have any medical conditions or dementia? What resources did you get her? How did you get it done in one week?

Thank you for asking!

Background read: getting the worst news and my update on what happened to my elderly, beaten aunt …

No medical conditions, no dementia.

The resources I managed to get her was Medicaid assistance, I put her in contact with the Food Bank in her area, I connected her with that free telephone service but that didn’t pan out because it takes forever to get on that plan and she needed a phone NOW, so we bought a cheap pay-as-you-go.

I got it done in a week by not sleeping, waking up at 6 a.m., not eating or cooking much, ignoring Little Bun, mapping out plans, calling everyone I could, and working until it was time to sleep.

We moved her close to a family friend so she could check on her and help out once in a while, and I set up an Amazon account to be able to buy and send her things directly to her door.

Say what you want about Amazon but they can get the job done if need be. I have never been happier for online shopping before.

Why don’t you pay for any household help?

Because I don’t want to spend the money.

Even if it’s $150 every 2 weeks or $300 a month, I see it as $3600 a year and $36,000 in 10 years. Add in compounding interest…

I don’t have a health problem, I don’t have to work more than 40 hours a week at a job.. I mean, there is lots of time to do all of this, I just have to get organized and not just throw money at things just because I don’t want to do them.

I’m all for people trading money for free time to do other things, but… I just can’t. I’d rather have the money.

I just can’t see it worth anything to me, seeing as I have nothing else to do with my time. When I clean the place, Little Bun likes to “help”, and when I am not cleaning I am with Little Bun but you can only read children’s books for so long before it is far too tedious and you NEED TO DO SOMETHING ELSE.

I can still clean the place on my own (once a month, I go on a rampage and just massively scrub the place down).

The only thing I could need a lot of help with are the dishes as they pile up daily, but otherwise, laundry is easy enough to start and do when you drop it in the washer before work, and dry it on the way home.

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