While my mother was in assisted living in the Watermark, I was more than satisfied with the care that she was receiving from the nurses and other attendants, but the administrative offices were a different matter. There always seemed to be a problem of some sort to be worked out. Usually minor, but every week or so there was something that needed my attention.

I was in Philadelphia and lived near the Watermark, but my sister lived in Las Vegas at the time, so it was easy for me to take care of the minor problems as they popped up. But it occurred to me that if something happened to me, it might be a burden for my sister to have to deal with the problems from the other side of the country. Yes, many of them could be handled over the phone, but for some of them an in person presence made things easier.

So I decided to see if there was some sort of solution.

When I explained what I wanted, the woman that I dealt with at the Watermark referred me to a lawyer who handled that sort of thing, and I made an appointment to see her.

When I arrived for my appointment at the lawyer’s office, her office was in a bit of a turmoil. Apparently she had an assistant who helped her with assisted living type cases, but that assistant was on vacation. 

Hmm.

I had explained what I was looking for when I made the appointment; why hadn’t I been scheduled for a time when the assistant would be present?

Well, the lawyer, and I don’t recall her name anymore, spent the half hour or so that I was there explaining that her assistant would have been able to explain things much more clearly than she could, but that she could definitely set something up to see that my mother was taken care of should something happen to me. She also kept badmouthing the Watermark and said she didn’t expect it to be around very much longer. She knew that it was a woman from the Watermark who had referred me to her, so I don’t know why she was so negative about it.

At the end of the half hour, she printed out some paperwork for me to take home and charged me $200 for her time.

My first impression of her was that I didn’t want a second one, and as her service would have cost thousands of dollars, I decided not to bother. As it worked out, I ended up outliving my mother anyway, so I didn’t need her service.

Is it any wonder that people hate lawyers?