So, I've gotten some more details about Pauline. It appears she was only down about two days. She pulled the phone out of the wall when she fell, so her line was busy, which isn't unusual. But when her neighbor came over, she heard her screaming for help, and called 911. They took her to the hospital, where she claimed her other neighbor beat her and knocked her down and left her without water. This is the same neighbor she blames for everything that she sees going wrong, who spies on her and causes her gates to rust and is responsible for strong winds, and anything else she perceives as being done to her. To the best of my knowledge, he is unaware of her existence, but now that social services is on the case, he soon will. The plus is, she's now in the system, so they will see her mental state and the filth she lives in. Of course, she is an adult, and as long as she is seen as being of sound mind, there's nothing anyone can do, and she wasn't very polite when my parents went up years ago, when she kicked them out of her house just for asking her to let a cleaning crew come in. And regardless, Uncle Bob has power of attorney, so he's the only one who could do anything. But hopefull this might put her in a better place. Her neighbor said the paramedics had to scale fairly substantial piles of garbage to get to her (and the cats being trapped in the house for days couldn't have made things more pleasant). I imagine a medicaid nursing home isn't the happiest place on earth, but her current situation ain't all that great, either.

Anyway, hopefully Bob will step up to the plate and things will turn out okay. Things like this make me want to cash out my IRA and buy a dune buggy. Why put money aside on the hope that you'll reach a ripe old age, when it seems like for every contented elder, I can name about a dozen stories of prolonged misery. Of course, being broke in your golden years would just make things exponentially worse, so I guess I have to still sock aside a few bucks from time to time. Besides, I've been alive for 27 years and not gotten old yet, why should another 27 or 54 years make a difference?