Feisty Aging

I have been trying to assist an 86-year-old woman who has about five major issues to resolve, and she is relentless.   Sometimes after 30 minutes or so on the phone with her, I have to end the conversation as politely as I can, hang up and just hold my head to get my brain waves back to normal.  Her insistence can wear me down, and yet I say, Bravo -don't let the b----ds get you down.

Trouble is, that kind of feistiness can look like a certain kind of craziness....at least in a world where lying low is the modus operandi of mainstream survival.   (Unfortunately, not everyone is James Joyce who can turn craziness into an art form!  Art rarely comes from a mainstream kind of mind.)

Yes, this woman was/is an artist.  But her unflagging belief in herself is truly remarkable.  For example, she has a problem with the landlord where she has lived for almost 60 years -he wants her OUT, but she will not yield and insists that he is a dishonest piece of humanity.  She keeps fighting. 

She was in a long term care facility twice, each time as the result of a different medical calamity.  The facilities would only let her leave if she was returning to a "safe" environment.  As an artist, she would be returning to an environment full (wall-to-wall) of potential hazards.  She agreed to stay temporarily elsewhere and, using her cane, goes each day, in the heat of summer, to "clean out" her space so that she can  live there again.  She seems not to be making much progress, and  basic repairs have to be made by the dishonest piece of humanity that is her landlord.  Will he make them?  She keeps going.

She has applied for SCRIE, the rent program, and is missing some documentation.  She thinks she knows where it is and will try to find it in the radical disorder that is her life.  Fear not, is her reaction

The bank closed her account because of an irregularity with a check, so she no longer has a bank.  The closing may have been accelerated by the fact that they (the bank manager) didn't want to deal with her anymore.   She is looking for a lawyer.

Her Verizon telephone doesn't  always work, she says, and she constantly gets automated voice messages in response to the many places she calls that are supposed to provide help with her problems.

Her financial resources are minimal.

She occasionally falls back on her bed in exhaustion, but only to rise again and continue the fight of daily living.  I think she is a marvel and, sometimes, when I am facing a hassle, I think of her.  Bravo.