"Receipts"

For some reason, receipts are a fixation for Mother.

I am usually careful to rip up and dispose of receipts. If Mother finds a receipt, it is carefully scrutinized to determine what and how much it's for. If it isn't recognised, she pores over it, again and again. Since her eyesight is bad and with the added problem of some sort of loss of judgement makes it increasingly difficult to understand something that she is reading, even when it is clearly written, she cannot "read" the receipt. Her complaint is usually that "the stores are deliberately making the receipts hard to read". It is usually very clear when I look at it.

I often come out to the car to find her painstakingly trying to make head or tail out of a receipt for 30 cents and trying to remember what she would have spent 30 cents on. The fact that, in the scale of things, 30 cents doesn't really matter, doesn't strike her. The fact that she orders hundreds of dollars worth of useless and unneeded items from Publishers Clearinghouse is a big deal.... Loaning $5000 to a relative who already owes you $30,000 is a big deal. A 30 cent purchase from the dollar store isn't.

To Mom, however, that 30 cents represents some something I can't quite understand. To her, it represents a roof over her head or living on the street.

"The Car Repair"

A couple of weeks ago, we were in an car accident. (No fault. I was driving).

Last week, I took the car in for repairs. I had a little cosmetic work done at the same toime so we can trade it in next month. Apparently, the repair shop doesn't take cards.... Since I was counting on paying with my credit card and didn't have the money to give a cheque, Mom paid by check and I planned on transferring the money from my credit card into her bank account. No problem, right?

Problem.... I can't transfer directly into her account without deporiting it into my account first and then into hers. The credit card and the bank account both have maximium daily limits.... So this simply operation takes three days to accomplish. Meanwhile, Lionel at the repair shop is kind enough to hang onto the cheque until the money is transferred.

Day 1: Mom calls my office in a panic..... "I just checked my account! I don't have enough to cover the cheque!"

Explanation: "Lionel is hanging on to the cheque until I can make all the transfers. I can't do another transfer until tomorrow."

"But what about the cheque?!"

Repeat part about cheque beig held until I call and tell him it's okay.

"Ah!" says she....

"So you are going to put the rest in tomorrow." (Statement, not question)

"No Mom, $1000 tomorrow and $1000 on Wednesday. The cheque won't go out of your account untill all the money is transferred."

"Ah!" says she.....

Day 2: Mom shows up at my office in a panic...... "I just checked my account! I don't have enough to cover the cheque!"

Repeat explanation about check, Lionel, transfers, amounts.....

"Ah!"

Day 3: Mom calls my office in a panic..... "I just checked my account! I don't have enough to cover the cheque!"

Repeat explanation about check, Lionel, transfers, amounts.....

"Ah!"

Brainstorm: Get Mother to write this down in her accountbook, clearly, and read back to me.

Fingers crossed....