SENIOR'S TRANSITIONS

The toughest (and most rewarding) transitions I have worked with have been seniors, octogenarians actually, who still lived alone, both men and women.

Overwhelmed, in a lot of emotional turmoil, holding on until they had been forced to 'vacate' their home, I worked with them through the downsizing and relocation process.

One gentleman's daughter came in from California several times, to interview and hire me, referred by their realtor, and came in at the end to accompany her dad to the west coast. The moving truck pulled away and they pushed his wheel chair down the ramp and got him into the car. He had cried a million tears by then and had come to terms with his situation. I called him 4 weeks later and he loved his new high rise apartment.

A lady in Silver Spring, in her wheel chair, worked side by side with me, room by room, going through everything, and packed her things to move to Sunrise Assisted Living. Once moved, I arranged her room, and called Verizon-(time after time after time.) I was to blame for her TV not working, a week later... LOL. Her personal representative, another senior, looked over the process, and paid my invoice. Nothing was going to make her happy, not all the attention in the world.

Frank, now my good buddy, had a large old DC townhouse that took us 6 weeks to get downsized, organized and then get him moved to Ingleside at Rock Creek, to his own lovely apartment, where his wife of 45 years was living in nursing care. During the downsizing process, he tried on all of his favorite suits, we took them to the tailor, he went through his book collection, for the last time, told us stories of Austria in WWII, how the Nazi's confiscated his father's factory, and many more. He studied his paperwork, at his dining room table for hours at end while we worked. I had met him on October 1, 2005 and he was moved, his unwanted valuables sold at a large estate sale, ( $28,000) and the house cleaned by the middle of December, settlement followed.

Sometimes I've been treated like the bad guy, sometimes I feel like their mother, and it's sometimes implied that I am taking their last red cent on pay day.

And eventually, when it's all said and done, I am the person who took it on to handle the details of their lives that got them moved forward, out of an endless existence of staring at the past.