Pickles by Brian Crane for May 07, 2012

If you didn’t have money to pay cash for it, you should have gotten a good running clunker.

I had to put my mother in a nursing home and aftera couple of years there went my inheritance.

Wow, Llewellenbruce, so your lost inheritance is the primary memory from that event, huh?

Did Earl mention he wanted the lawn mowed?

You may as well pack now, Earl.

That sounds exactly like something my daughter would say.

Totally off topic. Definitely.

Simpsonfan2, I’m with you!

No doubt there are people who warehouse old relatives in a nursing home just to get them out of their hair…in an old-movie cliché about an “old folks home”, that is. Three things wrong with that scenario in the real world:.(1) Most people in a modern nursing home are there out of medical necessity — these places are nursing homes, and the residents require physical/medical assistance and care on a more-or-less continual basis. Those who don’t need that level of care belong in a senior housing or assisted living facility if they’re unable to remain in their own homes..(2) Actual nursing homes don’t want, and won’t accept, patients who don’t truly need the level of care they provide. They need the beds and the staff for those who do.,(3) Nursing homes are expensive. More families are impoverished by supporting a relative in a nursing home than are ever able to stash grandpa there just because they want to and can afford it..There are exceptions, of course. And senior living housing and assisted living facilities can be dreary and lonely (not to mention expensive) if the real problem is that no one cares about the ones who live there..But Earl doesn’t have to worry about that at this point. He’s a reasonably healthy, pretty likable old coot, and he’s on good terms with his extended family, as far as we know. And it doesn’t sould like anyone could afford to put him anywhere!

I’m only 34 and both my natural parents are gone, I’d give anything to be able to take care of them. I was raised by my aunt and uncle and it probably won’t be my decision but I can’t see them being put into a home unless they need medical care.

Maybe you’d have that inheritance if you’d taken care of your parents instead of dumping them in a nursing home…

When we put my father in a nursing home it was a very expensive last resort.

I had to put my mother in an alzheimer’s/ nursing home when her alzheimer’s made it too dangerous for me to sleep during the day. I was a single nurse working 12 hr night shifts and got virtually no help from my 4 brothers. It was the sadest day of my life. ‘To make it worse I was a paramedic/flight RN and had experience picking patient’s up from nursing homes. Even the best ones aren’t good. Needless to say, I still kept her with me so much her insurance started not wanting to pay for the nursing home. I just wish she had an inheritance for me. I would have spent every dime keeping her home with me. Her insurance didn’t pay for experimental drugs and they weren’t cheap. I paid and they still didn’t work. I still miss her every day.

A parent can become too disabled for the their offspring to take care of and it’s a shame when all the parents worldly goods ( inheritance) end up going to a nursing home instead of the children and grand children. This happened to my wife who spent a year away from us caring for her parents till it became impossible. It would be nice if the next generation was able to benefit from what the previous generation had accumulated. Greed has nothing to do with it. We genuinely cared for her parents and did what we could.

Back to the original point; Isn’t Sylvia and husband Dan supposed to be self-supporting (although next-door)and if money’s that tight, ….um, I just lost the point, ‘cuz I’m older’n Earl and ….ah,.. where waz I going with this, ennyways? Oh, I remember…. it was about the

Thank you, Beviek, It was just an off-hand remark. I wish my mom had spent all her money. Inheritance is another headache. Llewellenbruce was just going with the comic strip.