The last two years of my father’s life were interesting. Our previous roles were reversed: Dad was now the child, and I the adult. I moved him to a new city and state, getting him close enough to keep an eye on him. He was already suffering from dementia, a realization I came to after he had forty thousand dollars stolen from him.

That’s right. Forty thousand dollars. The Canadian lottery scam. It began with a telephone call telling Dad he’d won, but that he had to wire money to cover the cost of insuring delivery of his winnings. They were kind enough to stay on the phone with him while he drove to Western Union. A day later, he was asked to wire more money to pay the taxes in advance. This went on for several days—official-sounding people becoming friends with a lonely old man and asking him to send more.

The day the promised million-dollar check failed to arrive at his home, Dad called and said, “Karen, I think I made a little mistake.”

I helped him to move into a senior adult independent-living apartment a couple of miles from my house. I managed his finances and medical … Continue reading Contented, Though Demented