Washingtonians for a Responsible Future

“My ninety-six-year-old mother has been living with me for seven years. When she moved in I still had four of my twelve adopted kids living with me. Now I have two kids at home. One of my kids is in college, and the youngest is eighteen. My youngest has been fighting cancer for a year. He is in Seattle Children’s Hospital where he received a stem cell transplant and will have a second transplant soon. It’s been difficult to take care of everyone physically and financially. I had to find someone to care for my Mom because we can’t afford long term care for her and Cody. I have to live in Seattle during his cancer treatments. In the beginning we thought we would be here a month or two. Now we will be here until the middle of June. I don’t know what I would do if my friend couldn’t watch her. It takes every penny I have to reimburse my friend and there is no place she could go if my friend can’t watch her anymore. I don’t know what to do.”

-Rita Norquist, Olympia

Lou

Aunt Jean with her Nephew Jack

“My aunt passed away this last July. She was in a convalescent center as a long-term care resident and eventually a hospice patient. She had moved to Washington from Ohio in 2001, and was in an independent living apartment for a number of years before her decline. Even before this decline started, four of her nieces and nephews were contributing to her monthly rent, because the money she had from selling her home was running out and her only other income was social security. The monthly amount from social security and selling her home was nowhere near sufficient for rent or other living expenses, such as food and clothing. She had no insurance of any type to lend assistance. Once the move to assisted living, with its increased cost, was approved, we were no longer able to continue contributing, having already expended considerable savings to her monthly needs.

    I was no longer able to find work that would allow me to drop everything and assist her as needed. My siblings were likewise feeling the pinch and telling me they could not contribute as before. Luckily, she qualified for Medicaid at that point. Having Medicaid meant that she had to move from a one-bedroom apartment to a studio with no kitchen, and eventually to a shared room in the convalescent center. While the staff was good to her, she never recovered from the indignity of having to change her home so drastically, after she worked for many years to provide a comfortable retirement. I believe she died more from the depression and feeling of uselessness that followed more than from any physical illness. “

-Lu Hamacek, Lacey

Liz Black often believes she’s in an airport terminal, delayed and frustrated. Or she’s lost in a busy department store.

But the turmoil has nothing to do with air traffic or shopping. Black, 83, is wheelchair bound and lives in a memory care unit in a skilled nursing facility in Spokane.

The retired anthropologist and former museum director is riddled with dementia.

“She has no idea what’s going on in her life,” said Lorna Walsh, Black’s daughter.

Despite nearly $350,000 in savings and investments, a home and a pension, Black is going broke.

It costs about $7,750/month for her round-the-clock care. Black only has about $20,000 left.

Once that money is gone, Black will qualify for Medicaid, the state’s safety net.

Like many Washingtonians, Black had planned to use her life savings to pass along to another generation. Black was planning to help her granddaughter go to veterinary school. Now, the money is all but spent.

“Her assets are almost gone,” Walsh said.

Black was living independently as a widow, running her home and sharing it with dogs. All that changed several years ago when Walsh said she found her mom nearly naked on the kitchen floor in a state of confusion.

“She didn’t realize where she was,” Walsh recalls. “She couldn’t place herself.”

Black also lost her ability to walk and the combination meant that she’d require skilled care in a nursing home.

Today, she’s physically healthy but mentally unbound.

She often doesn’t know where she is. She believes her wheelchair is a fax machine. She’s haunted by old memories and sometimes believes she’s woefully behind studying for a college exam that would have taken place many decades ago.

“She can go on like this for some time,” Walsh said. “It’s a bizarre world we walk into (when we visit).”

In addition to the emotional toll of witnessing her mother’s decline, the financial struggle also has been a challenge.

“We never thought we’d be in this position, ever,” Walsh said. “It never occurred to me that her medical insurance wouldn’t cover this.”

Having the Medicaid safety net there is a very good thing, Black’s daughter said.

Still, “It is sad that you have to give up everything you worked for in your life to qualify,” Walsh added.