The last message was the most revealing. Faith had stopped pretending.
“You know what, Mom? This is not going to stand. That house was our inheritance. We worked for that. We took care of you expecting you to be fair to us. You can’t just sell it and keep all the money. We are going to fight this legally. Grant has already spoken to a lawyer. We have rights.”
Rights.
What an interesting word coming from someone who had planned to strip me of mine.
I deleted all the messages and turned off the phone. I wouldn’t need it anymore.
The next day, Faith showed up at the hospital where I had worked for forty years. She asked for me at Human Resources. She demanded to know if I had any updated contact information in my files.
The shift supervisor, who knew me well, politely explained that information was confidential and that if I hadn’t shared my address with her, the hospital couldn’t do it.
“She’s my mother. She’s seventy years old. She sold her house and no one knows where she is. She could be in danger.”
Faith had perfected her distressed-daughter tone.
“Your mother worked here for forty years. I know her personally. She is one of the most capable and intelligent women I have ever met. If she decided not to share her location with you, I am sure she has her reasons.”
The supervisor didn’t let herself be manipulated.
I found out about this conversation because the supervisor called me that same afternoon on my new number, laughing.
“Dolores, your daughter came in today making a scene. Is everything all right? Do you need help?”
“Everything is perfectly fine, Hortense. Just a daughter who can’t accept that her mother still has the right to make her own decisions.”
“Ah, one of those. I had a similar one. They wanted to put me in assisted living to get my house. I showed them I can still run faster than they can.”
She laughed with that deep laugh I had always liked.
“If you need anything—anything at all—call me.”
“I will. Thank you, Hortense.”
But Faith and Grant didn’t give up.
They started looking for me systematically. They went to all the places they knew I used to go: the neighborhood church, the supermarket where I had shopped for years, the house of Audrey, my niece.
Audrey called me concerned.
“Aunt Dolores, Faith was here. She says you sold your house and disappeared. That she’s very worried about you. What is going on?”
“I’m fine, Audrey. I just made some decisions about my life that Faith didn’t like, but they are my decisions to make.”
“You sold the house.”
“Yes.”
“And you are living alone somewhere.”
“I am living very well in a safe place, with my money protected and my peace of mind intact.”
There was a silence. Then Audrey sighed.
“Faith asked me that if I saw you, I should try to convince you to move in with them. She said something about it not being safe for you to be alone at your age.”
“And what do you think?”
