Friends for Life » Guardianship Stories

Happy Endings

inez — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 21:38:55 +0000

We have a 27 year old client who was abandoned by his momma when he was very young. He has cerebral palsy, intellectual disabilities and juvenile diabetes. Recently we moved him in with a family that has a foster care home for adults with disabilities. They are very caring and nurturing. He was so happy with his new home that he told his foster father he didn’t want to move any time soon. The foster father said, ‘don’t worry, we’ll grow old together’. Yesterday at his new Dayhab, he baked his first cake for St. Patrick’s Day. His large new extended family all love him and his foster mom is working with him every day on his speaking and healthy eating. He is looking forward to his first family vacation this summer. Praise God for caring, nurturing people to care for adults with disabilities and give them the family they never had.

Looking for a Home

inez — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 18:44:31 +0000

We are looking for a donation of office space for our San Antonio office. We plan to move our office there in just a few weeks. Do you know anyone in San Antonio who might help us out?

Thank you for Here

inez — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:54:05 +0000

There was no way to know if she understood what we were saying when we first met her. She could not talk – could not tell us what was wrong or what she wanted or needed. There was a look of fear in her eyes that I will never forget. She was panicked – stumbling around half-dressed. It was clear she had not bathed or combed her hair in a very long time. We were asked to be her guardian- to take care of her and we did. Weeks later she looked like a totally different person – hair that once stood straight up on her head was replaced with a new hairdo. She was wearing clean clothes and with proper medical care and good nutrition, she could now talk. “My husband and I never had children. I was all alone. I was so scared at night that I could not sleep. I was terrified. I didn’t know what to do. Thank you for HERE.” She did not know the name of her safe, new home, but her fear was gone and there were tears of joy in her eyes.

I don’t know what to do.

inez — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 21:00:49 +0000

I went to see an elderly widow who was sitting on concrete steps outside her house. She was crying and she had pulled out almost all of her hair. There were ants crawling all over her. She couldn’t remember when she had eaten last or when she had taken her medicine. She just kept crying, “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do.” We found her a safe place to live where she had people to take care of her – people who made sure she ate and took her medicine. And, we got her a wig.

The Reunion

inez — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 23:22:12 +0000

Ann was visiting one of her favorite guardianship clients, when she decided to ask, “What would you like more than anything in the world? Mary said, “I’d like to see my sister once more before I die.” Working this out was a challenge since her sister lived in a nursing home several hours away and Mary was frail. Twice the trip was scheduled and cancelled because of Mary’s health. Finally, she was well enough to go and with her doctor’s help, all the details were worked out.

When the two sisters saw each other for the first time in ten years, everyone cried. For four days they were inseparable. Lots of photos were taken of the reunion and placed in albums for each of them. On the way home, Mary was quiet. Then she turned to her care manager and said, “I think I’d like to go back for Christmas!”

Piccadilly

inez — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 22:16:43 +0000

You could barely see her house from the road. She had not eaten a real meal in years. Her plumbing didn’t work. It had been several years since she had been able to cook or bathe. She was afraid to let anyone know she needed help so she withdrew inside her house and little problems grew into huge problems. When we were asked to help her, we found her a new place to live where she had someone to cook for her and people to care for her. She was hard to catch after that. Every time the bus pulled up for a field trip, she was first in line. She called me one day from the mall and said, “Have you ever been to Piccaddilly? They have all kinds of food here. You just pick anything you want. It’s wonderful!” How does anyone in this country live to be 76 years old without ever going to a cafeteria? Piccaddilly was by far her favorite field trip.

They Won’t Know

inez — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 02:37:42 +0000

We told one of our elderly guardianship clients that we never show anyone their pictures to protect them and to insure confidentiality.

She gave us this picture and said, “Show this. No one will know it’s me.”

In a Shed behind his House

inez — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 20:33:04 +0000

He was a vet.

His family had locked him in a shed behind his house for years. He might have died in that shed, but one of his family members got mad at him and split his head open with a hoe. The family took him to the emergency room.

Police told us later they were sure the family would never have taken him to the hospital if they had been able to figure out how to continue to collect his retirement check if he died.

We were asked to be his guardian and we made sure he had a safe place to live and that his money went to him.

One Thousand Dollars for Lunch

inez — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 04:27:20 +0000

I received a call from Adult Protective Services in a neighboring county. “I know you don’t serve this county, but we have an elderly lady who is starving to death. There is no one to take care of her. I’ll understand if you can’t help.” I called each of our board members. They all agreed we should help. Left alone, this lady would starve to death. She was writing checks, large checks (many as much as a thousand dollars) to strangers who came to her door, begging them to bring her food. Some brought her food, some just took the money. Her hip had disintegrated and she could not move without excruciating pain. She could not care for herself or her dogs. She had a brother, but he lived on the other side of the world. We got her a new hip, a safe place to live and people to take care of her.

Saving for a Rainy Day

inez — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 04:25:17 +0000

In our first year at Friends for Life, we were asked to be the legal guardian for a man who had been found unconscious on a railroad track. He was living in a shed about the size of my office (which was pretty tiny). There was no electricity and no running water. He lost consciousness because he was sick – from exposure and poor nutrition. It turned out that he had quite a lot of money – hundreds of thousands of dollars in banks that he was saving for a ‘rainy day’. He just did not realize it was raining.

We became his guardian so he could get the care that he needed. What a delightful man he turned out to be. I remember that he asked us to take him to get new frames for his glasses. He was quite specific. He did not want new lenses. They were just fine. He had broken his frames when he fell onto the railroad track. He just needed new frames. He wanted to go back to his optometrist. He knew exactly where the office was, even though he had not been there in over fifty years! Fortunately, the son of his optometrist had taken over the practice and still had his records. He was right about the lenses. The prescription had not changed!