Daze of our lives (Part III)

Around February of this year, Nurse Gollum and Misty ran into a minor snag in their system.

In order for Obi-Wan to qualify for a free house keeper through Medicaid, his personal bank account had to have a balance below $5000. And to everyone’s surprise, he had more than that. They didn’t realize this until after Misty had been employed for several months.

I don’t find it coincidental that a month before this event, Obi-Wan shared his personal financial information with me. I guess he trusts me with this information. The CEO’s timing, I suppose.

It was now obvious that Misty was going to lose her job and thus, Nurse Gollum would lose her second set of eyes on Obi-Wan’s daily life. But Nurse Gollum’s influence over Obi-Wan went into high gear.

I went to visit Obi-Wan one afternoon as he and Nurse Gollum were heading out the door. But this time it wasn’t for a doctor visit. He mentioned something about going shopping.

Before I knew what happened, the next day several delivery men were showing up to his house with various appliances and furniture. Nurse Gollum had talked him into purchasing the following:

- A new stove/oven. Granted, his old one wasn’t working to his liking. It could probably have been fixed, but too late now.
- A washer and a dryer. Obi-Wan has maybe one load of laundry a month (he wears the same clothes for 4-5 days. The ultimate bachelor). Nurse Gollum use to take it home with her and sometimes I’d bring it to my house. I can’t see spending the money on these machines at his age because he only has ONE load a month. And he can’t operate them himself. I told him I’d keep washing them at my house. Too late.
- A new bed and mattresses. He never complained about his old one, but he did have trouble sleeping at night. This wasn’t his choice, but now he likes it.
- Some mini-blinds and drapes. Again, he had no issue with his old drapes, but things look better with the new (Nurse Gollum recruited me to install them).

This is when it got real hard to conceal my eyebrow raising. Obi-Wan was convinced he was doing the right thing because, “Nurse Gollum has helped me for years”. So buying these things will get his bank account below $5000 and keep Misty employed. I found that loyalty odd, especially since he never liked Misty and he knew she wasn’t doing her job anyway.

All of these purchases have benefited his life somewhat in the last several months. So they weren’t a total waste. But they weren’t his idea in the first place and he never would have spent the money without her prodding. He never spends money on himself. I had to convince him once that it was “OK” to replace 30 year-old socks that ripped every time he pulled them up.

And the day after these items were delivered, Obi-Wan went into the hospital for three weeks. Thankfully, he made it home to enjoy his new stuff. But soon after, there was medical bills to pay, and not as much money in the bank to pay them.

And...when Obi-Wan passes on, Nurse Gollum will be the recipient of the majority of his estate.

Including these new purchases.

(part IV should hopefully be the end of this series)