Chapter 6 - THE CLAIMS THAT STARTED TOO EARLY
At home, I emptied the box across my dining table.
The oldest reimbursement statement was dated twenty-seven months earlier.
Dad had still been driving then.
He was gardening.
He occasionally needed help with buttons and fatigue, but he was not receiving daily personal care.
Yet Mom had submitted claims for bathing assistance, meal supervision, medication management, and mobility support.
Several were signed by Dad.
His signatures looked different.
Not dramatically.
Just shakier than his writing from the same period.
Colleen came over and compared them.
“She used to bring papers to him at church,” she said. “Said they were insurance renewals.”
Dad’s notebook confirmed it.
Margaret says sign here. Didn’t let me read.
Another entry:
Asked what care claim is. She said paperwork to keep policy active.
I sent copies to the insurer.
They requested original claim files.
Meanwhile, Chelsea’s situation became worse.
Her mortgage lender issued a formal delinquency notice. Mom could no longer cover the payment because the insurance benefit was frozen.
Chelsea called me crying.
“Mason is going to lose his home.”
“Mason has a father.”
“He lives in a two-bedroom apartment.”
“That is still a home.”
“You’ve always hated me.”
I almost laughed.
“No. I hated that Mom treated us differently.”
“She treated you better.”
That stunned me.
“You’re joking.”
“You were Dad’s favorite. You got college paid for. You got the responsible one role. Every time I messed up, Mom said, ‘Why can’t you be more like Lucy?’”
The family looked different from her side.
I had been assigned competence.
Chelsea had been assigned fragility.
Both roles served Mom.
One child handled problems.
The other justified them.
Neither of us was encouraged to become independent of her.
Chelsea wiped her face.
“She said helping me with the house was Dad’s idea.”
“It wasn’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I have his notebooks.”
Chelsea went quiet.
“What notebooks?”
When I explained, she whispered something I barely heard.
“She told me his memory was getting bad.”
Mom had used Dad’s diagnosis in opposite ways.
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When she needed his signature, he was competent.
When he disagreed with her, he was confused.
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