Decided to get back to it after an incident with a neighbor's relative yesterday. Story began more than 10 years ago when we first moved to our current resident. The neighborhood was warm and friendly.We quickly met a dear old lady in her 70s living almost directly across the street from us. Soon, her next door neighbor sold their house and gave us a simple request, that is to keep an eye on her. I took that to heart. Pretty soon, she found out where I came from and the many places we have been. She was baffled on why we chose to settle down across the street from her. I had forgotten about that conversation until she brought up last week but this time, she has an answer. That we were sent here to take care of her while her own abandoned her. Sad as it may seem, I do take that with a grain of salt. I am uncertain of the claim of abandonment for I was once accused of that very same crime. I help her, as the relationship allows me. I am also constantly reminded of the dear neighbor who stuck a bag of lunch through the window for my father in his later years. I see what I do for my now 80 plus year old blind neighbor as paying it forward. Her time is almost up and she knows it. That became most apparent last Wednesday when I eventually was able to get her to open the door. She was so frail and disorientated. I gave her water, juice, and warm up some leftover for her. I was concerned and I called one her of niece. She sounded irritated and short, but she eventually called me back to apologize. She tells me her version, and it sounded contradictory from her aunt's (my neighbor) version but rational nonetheless. I don't take side. I just do what I can. Upon my neighbor's request, I made several calls to see if I can get her some help. I got the run around and no help came forward. But in one of the calls, I was forewarned to be careful, and it is sad that I know exactly what the speaker meant. We are keeping tight records of items she has asked us to purchase for her. We have receipts before we accept payments and we pay by credits for record keeping.
Yesterday, the reality came sooner than we thought. An innocent call from my neighbor's niece came just before dinner. She wanted to come by for us to sign documents as witnesses. We innocently obliged. She came in with a paragraph of not more than 10 lines stating that we are not blood relatives of her and we have no claim to her will or assets. I made a "signature" on the page. I made a mark on the paper to get her out of my house but I was also insulted by her attempt to deceive us. My husband and I talked about the signed documents and he said in reference to my neighbor's niece, "She obviously do not know our character." We have been helping this neighbor for more than 10 years. I used to include her on my outings during my holidays. I have taken her furniture shopping so that she can replace an old rocker that swivels. I took her to the furniture store that she wanted. We looked through the catalog. We chose the fabric. My husband picked it up for her, assembled it for her, and put up with her smart comment. Other than her sister who comes about once a week to take her grocery shopping, hardly anyone showed up to help her. We invited her to all our dinner party, big or small. All our friends knew her. All our out of state relatives who have visited us, have met her. Now in her later years, her relative are suspicious of our intention. We didn't just start helping her. It's been years.
The least of our concern is getting a piece of her pie. Maybe her niece could have done it in a non deceptive way. But all in all, my only hope is that she did it in my neighbor's best interest.
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