make a difference
a diary of my mother's stubborn resistance to accept help
19 February 2025
Finally I got my mother to CVS. On the way in she was very upset because she “doesn’t need my help.” Part of her crank is that she’s not been taking anti-depressants because she lost them in her home. She doesn’t know that I spent hours on the phone with the pharmacist, online setting up an account with CVS, and emailing her doc trying to get the scrip filled early. Now the pills were ready and she grudgingly agreed to come with her insurance card, hallelujah! She muttered slurs about me forcing her out, and refused to use her cane and instead carried it like a baguette.
A man stood in front of the CVS door, asking for help with food, and I said, “I’m sorry, but can you help me with my mother?”
“Sure he said, I can watch her.”
She was not amused, and rightly so, but man, I needed relief.
We got to the front of the pharmacy line and learned that her Plan D Pharma insurance doesn’t work. She has been booted off. It seems a letter came in December, she didn’t understand it or ask for help and now she has no drug plan. She has no meds because they were $$$$$.
“Shut up, Natalie,” she said to me as we walked away. She said other cruel things, about family members hating me… barbs that drew blood.
I stopped to buy some Advil, because you know, headache. My mom, meanwhile was gesturing like crazy, “Let’s go, let’s go.” It seems she’d stolen some sunglasses. Crammed them in her purse because the line was too long. Now she would have to pay.
…
Today I went to a soup kitchen and helped to make lunch for 48 people living rough. It was such a relief. Make a difference. Make food. Make someone happy.
