The past couple of months have been pretty busy for me and Jean. The holiday season is filled with things to do! This particular Christmas we've been getting ready for Betty's house to sell. We received an offer that we wanted to take on October 28. Gardiner is a pretty small town, so we've been keeping a lid on it the best we can because people talk.
Glenn and Patty and have been living there for awhile as renters. It's been really beneficial because they've been really great with the property and have taken good care of it. Without people actually living there, a lot of problems could have come up that could have prevented the house from being sold. At the point that we had to sell the house some hard feelings started coming to the surface toward us and our selling agent, which we're sorry about since Glenn and Patty have been great to have around. Honestly it was expected because the house was selling around Christmas and Glenn and Patty, our neighbors, only had a month to find a place to live and move. Gardiner is not the easiest place to find a place to live! They've had a lot of stress this Christmas season, and I can appreciate that.
On the other hand, it's been stressful for Jean, Dad, and myself too! As per part of our buy-sell agreement, we had to make a private road easement between Betty's house and our own. I'd been busy with a lawyer trying to arrange that. We had a little bit of stuff and one last car in Betty's garage which had to be immediately moved. Dad and Bonnie came up to Gardiner a few days ago and we got that taken care of. Since Betty and Grandma are both in a nursing home, all of their affairs had to be signed by their powers of attorney. Grandma was unable to sign for Betty in her condition, so we had to have Betty's daughter-in-law help, but she's in Colorado, so it slowed the process down a bit. We had to fumble through some paperwork from both the lawyer and the title company. There were discrepancies that needed to be fixed, and strange questions which arose that needed to be answered. At the last minute I found out that I needed to hire a professional cleaner according to the buy-sell agreement before the buyer moved in. Such is the situation with a house being sold, isn't it!?
I have been more of the middle man in all of this. I have had no power to sign any document--even a check--but I have been responsible for making sure that things happened. Grandma certainly couldn't have done this all on her own even before her stroke. Especially at the end, I found that people relied on me to communicate between parties and to ensure that contracts were enforced.
This past week felt like I was back in college and this was finals week. So much had to be done in a very short amount of time! At least I didn't have to do any all-nighters! I have been here for the entire ordeal: Betty had to go into a nursing home in 2005; I and 5 other people went through the majority of her house for 2 months in 2006; Betty's house went on the market in 2008, and shortly afterward, she also had to go on Medicaid; she was put into hospice care in October, and now Betty's house finally closed on Friday, December 17. Next month she will be paying her bill privately at the nursing home, and the lien that Medicaid put on the house has been satisfied.
I haven't seen Betty lately, but Dad and Bonnie seem to think that she's declined in the past month. Jean doesn't think so. Talking to Evergreen on Friday, I found out that Betty had a fall that day. She doesn't appear to have hurt herself badly, and it seems that she tried to get out of her wheelchair by herself to walk. Her falls are infrequent now, so that's some good news. Evergreen has changed her diet to being pureed, which has also helped. I'm not so sure that we're going to be able to get new bottom dentures for her based on what I'm hearing from Evergreen and the denturists. In the meantime until dentures are plausible, we'll have to just settle for the pureed diet. One of the ladies there commented that although she doesn't recognize anyone else, she does still recognize her sister because when they are in the cafeteria, Betty will often scoot herself in the wheelchair to a place next to Grandma. Betty can't talk anymore, but she can answer yes-or-no questions. In my opinion she's just existing. I don't think she has long to live, but she's survived longer than I expected!
Medicaid has never been fun. Medicaid is a state sponsored program in which people who don't have enough income can receive government help. The nursing home here costs about $50,000 a year, and that eats into people's life savings really quickly. Although Betty still partially owned her house, she didn't have enough money to pay for the nursing home. Subsequently, I've had to jump through a lot of hoops so that she qualifies for Medicaid. To put it simply, Medicaid is a huge bureaucracy that goes to extreme lengths to make sure they don't lose any money. Even Betty's burial policy had to be signed again because Medicaid wanted to put limits on how it can be used. Medicaid was a necessary evil in all of this mess, and I hope I never have to use it again, especially regarding Grandma being in the nursing home. Nevertheless, it's better than nothing.
I'm so glad it's over!