Eddie Money

Eddie was a packer.  His bags were always ready to go by the door of his care home.  As soon as I walked in to take him for an outing, he'd grab them.  I would tell him to leave them as I was  just going to take him  for a drive. At this point, he would open his wallet and indicate that he was short on cash and needed to get to a bank.  If I argued with him that he didn't need more than the four $20 bills he had in there, he would get belligerent.

So, off we would go to the downtown branch of his bank.  We'd wait in line and then the moment he would get up to the teller he would tell me to scram and he'd ask for "the usual".  I would go and wait dutifully on the sidelines until he got his four 20's.  Thus bringing the content of his wallet to $160. 

With care home expenses already paid for each month and that included food and prescriptions, there was no need for him to have that kind of cash on him just waiting to be lost or taken by another non compos mentis resident. Even if we got a package of cookies and a pair of socks at the dollar store, he'd still have an over abundance of dough. I needed to think of a solution.

I hatched a plan one day to write a note to the bank teller.  I didn't want to scare her by passing her a note nor did I want Eddie to catch on to what I was doing, so it had to be done with great tact.  The note read "Please give Eddie four $5 bills rather than the four $20's that he asks for. He does not need so much cash". As we stood together in line waiting for his usual teller, I felt nervous, the note folded in my hand.  The young familiar face beckoned to us to come forward to her wicket, I tried to breathe calmly. As we approached, Eddie told me to get lost, that he didn't need me there. I knocked his pen on the floor and as I picked it up and put it on the counter, I slipped her the note with a wink.  She opened it, read it, and nodded as I went to wait at the back.  I crossed my fingers and hoped and prayed that with his poor eyesight and dementia, we would be able to pull off this covert operation.

A few minutes later I looked over as she was counting out the money to him.  "One, two, three, and one more makes four."   She had given him four brand new five dollar bills. He stared at the money and he stared at her, and then he stared at the money and her again. I held my breath and so did she.  I could tell he knew that something wasn't quite right but he couldn't process it so at last he smiled, scooped up the money, and put it carefully in his wallet.  "Victory!" I shouted in my head as I walked over to him and we walked arm in arm out of the bank.  I looked back and gave her the thumb's up.

From that day forward, I took Eddie to the same teller and she gave him a more manageable $20 instead of the $80 he had been so used to receiving. I look at it as something I did tactfully.  Was it dishonest? It was sneaky, but it was the right thing to do.

Here's your tip if you have a senior with too much cash on hand:
See if you can enlist the bank to understand the situation.  Go to the bank manager without the senior in tow and explain the situation.  Most banks get to know their regular customers and are more than happy to stop needless loss of cash.  My utmost thanks to the bank tellers who have seen large cheques written to handymen by their elderly clients and have called the family or client themselves to see if the work has actually been performed. In one recent situation, the bank manager actually paid a visit to the home of the client after several large cheques were cashed. They found the elderly man in his home with absolutely no renovations performed for the money that had been paid. It seems his poor eyesight and age had prevented him from seeing how bad the situation had become.   Fraud of the elderly is unfortunately prevalent in this society with all sorts of wrongs committed, including scam phone calls obtaining personal security codes, etc.