Trust me, her age is part of what makes this so difficult. She threw out a lot of responses to the effect of “would you do this to your own mother? How could you treat family like this? I thought I was family, etc.”
I could literally see myself being in her situation and I can’t imagine how I would get through it. This is causing me a tremendous amount of anxiety. I believe in karma and I believe I have ruined mine. I know she is overwhelmed. The lack of services in our area make it 10 times worse.
There are a few agencies that can offer assistance but it appears that her income, although small, is still too great for most services. I just found out within the last 24 hours that she technically does not qualify for legal aid but I guess they are considering helping her anyway. She collects her own pension, her husbands pension, and Social Security. One would think in a state like New York there should be some thing. But we are in a small rural county in central New York. We are a very poor county. You have to drive 45 minutes to get to a Target. You need to drive 45 minutes to see any kind of specialist doctor.
When I called the local office for the aging I inquired if there was any services that could help her pack and physically move her belongings. Their answer was no we have no services. “She needs to rely on The generosity of friends, family, and neighbors.”