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My wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s when she was just shy of 65 years old.
No disease is a good disease, let me put it that way. But Alzheimer’s is a death sentence. No one ever comes back from Alzheimer’s. There’s no remission, there’s no cure. I made a promise to myself and to my wife that I would care for her at home. This was her home and I wanted her to spend her days in her home. I knew I needed a plan. I knew I had to see an attorney.
I had to get my wife on. There was an agency that was holding a seminar. First of all I wanted to educate myself. One of the things that this seminar, is they were going to have a panel and they were going to present. So I went to the seminar. I guess there was about six or attorneys. When Ellen got up and did her presentation and I saw, that’s the attorney that I want to see.
I made an appointment, I came into see Ellen, and she sat me down. I guess when she sat me down, I guess we spoke for about an hour. Everybody’s situation is different. Your finances, it’s different. Family dynamics, different. Your needs are different.
Ellen sat me down and wanted to know all of these things, and we came up with a game plan. What did I want, and what could she do to help me. We got my wife on Medicaid, and it was the best thing for any disease. It’s very expensive. Me and my wife worked very hard for everything. I’ll pay my fair share, but I needed help, but so getting my wife help, being on Medicaid was very helpful for me taking care of her. It allowed me to hire aides eight, 12 hours a day, seven days a week. It allowed me to take care of supplies that she needed, medication, all of those things that go with the disease.
Well as the disease progressed, I realized that what if something happens to me, who’s going to take care of my wife, and how is she going to be taken care of the way I want her to be taken care of.
So I called Ellen again, I came in to see her again, and again she asked me, what do you need? What do you want to do? And we set up a trust, and in that trust I knew then I could prepare, God forbid, my children and my grandchildren will take care of my wife the way I want it. So that was that.
My wife passed away in September 2018. Now my needs changed. Now that my wife was gone, I wanted to make sure that whatever assets and whatever things I had would be transferred to my children, my grandchildren without problems. Again, I came in and I saw Ellen, and we came up with a plan. Where I now feel comfortable, my wishes will be taken care of, and that’s it.
The association with Ellen has been exceptional, it really has. You’re not a number here. You’re an individual, you’re a client. And every individual has certain needs, and there’s dynamics in the family, all those things. She explores that and she comes up with a plan that fits what your needs are. I could not have done it without getting on Medicaid. I could not have done it without trusts, and protecting our assets. So I could get those things, so I could really make her life and to make my caregiving, my responsibilities easier. The handicap van was a home run. I would wheel her into the van, I would take her to the park, all those things. That would not have been possible without me getting on Medicaid, setting up the trust, and having everything in place, and protecting my assets. I can pass them on now, to my children and my grandchildren.