When you're in this business as long as I have, you develop referral sources. As I've said countless times, my company, Senior Solutions provides social work based solutions to seemingly clinical problems. We do not provide clinical solutions. So one day about 25 years ago, one of those sources, a local geriatric psychiatrist sent me over to the 3rd floor at Mt. Sinai Hospital to see if I could be of any help to one of his patients who was going home in a couple of days.
Her name was Molly. I sat and talked with Molly for over 3 hours. She had led an unbelievable life. She had marched with Dr. King and she had been on the front lines with Caeser Chavez. This lady was an activist pure and simple. She was a little confused by the present and she had eyesight issues, but if half of the things she was telling me were true; my goodness what a woman!
The stories kept bubbling out of her. She had done this and she had been there. On and on and on. She wasn't bragging. she was reliving those events. I don't think she had had anyone who listened to her for the last 15 years since her husband died. I could see why someone might have put her in the psych ward, but there were too many facts mixed in with these incredible stories.
I agreed to take her home from the hospital and get her settled in and to watch over her for the readjustment process. When we arrived at her modest 2 bedroom apartment, there was an Aide living there. She was very brusque and insisted that she had been and would continue to care for Molly and no help was needed, ....thank you very much!
Goodbye!.... and please don't come back!
For me that's the proverbial red flag. Something was going on here. Dynamics were at play beneath the surface. I stayed and asked Molly for her banking information. Together she and I went to the bank. It didn't take long to discover that the Aide waa taking advantage of Molly. I won't say she was stealing, but she was earning way too much money in relation to what she was actually doing for Molly. In short, Molly had millions of dollars. Her last name matched one of the pre-eminent Jewish brokerage/ investment houses on Wall Street.
It was a second marriage, so she was Aunt Molly to a ton of cousins and other family members. They were sort of too busy (and she was quite a handful) to keep up with their "crazy" aunt by marriage. So Molly langished in Florida. She might hear from a couple of them every so often, but for the most part, she did not.
I listened to fabulous stories for another ten years. People like Molly are not a renewable resource. She was amazing and unique. I don't think we'll see her kind ever again.
Ronnee
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