Where We Are Today

In writing this blog, I hope that families who are facing putting loved ones in assisted living or long term nursing care don’t make the mistakes that we did. I will chronicle our story over the past 12 years, more specifically the last two years, and how we were blindsided by a legal system that is vague and inconsistent. Because of our nativity and trust in the system our family could be homeless in the next two months.

Over the past 12 years, The cost of Jean’s care has been close to $900,000.00, exhausting all finances and now jeopardizing the house that Jean had setup in a trust for Charles back in 2006. We have lived in the home for 19 years and now face being evicted by the Trustee of her estate. I will explain the details in future posts of our two year court battle with the nursing home facility and attorneys over guardianship and trustee control that we have lost, and now face eviction from the current Trustees for the home we have paid for and maintained all the years.

We have learned that it doesn’t matter if you are the only family, it can all be taken away by a system that is so intertwined by the nursing homes and attorneys that we never had a chance. I’m not saying we didn’t make mistakes, but we always made sure Jean was taken care of. In my next post, I’ll outline the 12 year journey, but for now, keep us in your thoughts.

Charles and Susan Murray

Comments

February 2023 - May 2023

The Guardian never contacted us, even after we received the official “Order” from the court in December 2022. Meanwhile, the funds were adding up in Jean’s account with no payments being made to the nursing facility. I called the facility in December and they wouldn’t divulge any information to me concerning Jean’s financial obligation to them, they wouldn’t even tell me if she had enough personal funds in the account for hair, nails, etc., and they had to get permission from the Guardian to tell me that. We did not realize it at the time but the Guardian was having all Jean’s mail that was going to our address forwarded to them, so we were not seeing any bills from the nursing home, but they were and they didn’t do anything about getting them paid. They never told us they had her mail forwarded they had absolutely no contact with us. In early February 2023 we were served with a “Motion To Appoint Guardian Of The Estate As Trustee Of Ward’s Revocable Trust”. We were totally BLI

January 2021 - December 2022

In October 2022, Charles and I lost guardianship and POA over Jean. In January 2021, in the midst of the COVID outbreak, Jean fell and broke her hip and had COVID. Upon release from the hospital she was sent to a skilled nursing facility in Garner. NC. The average cost of a skilled nursing facility in shared Medicaid room is about $8,000.00 per month. Within a few days of her being admitted, we were contacted by a company that was paid by the facility to assist people in signing up for Medicaid, which she was now eligible for. Like everyone, this was such an unknown time in our lives. We had lost about 80% of our business and I was just finishing up three years of chemotherapy and radiation for a rare type of Lymphoma. We were struggling financially and emotionally. Charles and I were Jean’s Guardian, POA and were Trustees of her Trust. We are her only family, and had made decisions on her behalf for over 10 years. We always acted with Jean’s best interest and our family in m

Blindsided

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