As I contemplate retiring within the next few weeks, I am thinking back on some of my special adventures. I do home visits for my job a few times a year, and I spent 3 days in the Catskills on one of my more memorable trips. This one is just unforgettable.
One of my clients lives so far out in the country, I couldn't see her house from the road. I had to park on the road and literally climb down to her house deep in the woods.
She is 71 years old.
She has no running water. She goes down to the creek for water and buys water for drinking and cooking.
Most of her electric outlets don't work, so she just doesn't use them.
She heats with a wood stove and in the winter the temperature never goes above 55. She scavenges wood all winter and closes off the upstairs. The state only pays for some of her wood.
There's a tree on her property about to fall on her house and no one wants to do anything about it. She can't afford to have it cut down.
Her house is damp and full of mold and she has to clean it constantly.
Her son & daughter live out west.
Wild animals come up to her house, so she can't let her cats out, ever.
Her stove is broken, so she uses a hotplate.
The door to her fridge fell off one night, but she put it back on.
She needs to go up on her roof to fix it, but she has enough sense not to do it herself.
She has no phone, not even a cell.
Her mailbox is at the top of the hill on the road.
You think she has it bad?
She doesn't. She won't hear of moving. She said when she leaves, it will be in a black bag. As hard as living is for her, she loves her home because growing up, she never had any roots and moved 15 times before she was 8 (depression years). She helped build this house with her ex-husband, has built a greenhouse herself on the side of the house and has a gorgeous collection of green growing things. She has a patio full of pots and flowers everywhere. She has 3 feral cats who love her. She has more energy than I do. She's not afraid (well, a little because of the tree that might fall on her house).
I want to adopt her.
It's also amazing that she survives on about $700/mo. I really wish I could contact a local church or agency to go out and help fix up the place for her. I felt like hugging her when I left. I'll be checking on her remotely, though. Someday when I retire, I want to live in the woods like her, but on level ground with a 4WD with a plow.
I also visited a house with 10 people, various friends and relatives, dad in jail, and about to foreclose on their home. She'll be ok though, I'm pretty sure.
I see a lot, and as bad as I think my situation is, I always feel grateful. It kind of puts things in perspective for me.
Her name is Olive, how cool is that? She's as feisty and cranky as anything, yet had a great sense of humor and smile. I want to buy her an LifeAlert. I'm frightened that something will happen and no one will know. Off-duty, I'd love to visit her again.
I've been doing this for almost 30 years mostly in an office, and the home visits for the past 3 years, which have been the most fullfilling years of my career. Mostly I see welfare rats taking advantage of the system, but I understand they're doing whatever they need to do to survive, and I bend the rules even for them. I fill out forms asking about their daily activities, and it makes me sick when all they can think of is watching TV. I mean, your life is all about watching TV? Someone else does all the cooking, cleaning and laundry for you? I know you're disabled, but so is Stephen Hawking. I know, not everyone can be productive in the usual sense, but some people don't even exercise their minds. I see a lot of disabled people here trying to make a go of it. They're trying, for chrissakes. Some people just don't even try.
And here is this 71 YO lady who should be enjoying her retirement years, living hand to mouth and loving her life! Who needs a million bucks!
