We tend to think that people with money hoard it. Perhaps this is true to a great extent, but I don't believe it to always be the case. Here's why.
I am retired and still several months away from getting Medicare. The rate things are going in the Bubble of Oz, I lie awake nights wondering if I really will get it and if I do, at what cost if it is decimated by our Congress Critters? Privatization is certainly on the horizon, as you can't take anything off the burners with those reprobates.
In all honesty the only way my friend and I are still able to live while financially poor, is
that we take care of a developmentally disabled man whose mother is well off financially.
She certainly isn't super rich, but has income from trust funds that allows her to live very comfortably, even though you would never know it from how she appears in public, nor in her private life. She lives very modestly herself. The type of woman who footed the bill to replace the floor of her church when it was flooded by a broken pipe and ruined. She does those kind of things and frequently.
In exchange for room and board, I cook for her son, making sure he gets well balanced meals. I do the shopping, handle his checkbook and do his taxes. My friend ensures he is safe and not taken advantage of by others, so he can live as normal a life as possible.
My long time friend and I have taken care of this young man for over 27 years. We are not married. His mother took care of him alone for over 20 years and the effect shows on her.
Two years ago his mother began the process of ensuring that her son has a house to live in that would be maintenance free for the most part and incorporated almost all of the new technologies that provide for energy conservation. He did not want a new house because he has lived in this house and neighborhood all of his life. Being autistic, change is difficult for him to handle, so his mother put us all up in a rental apartment, while the old house was torn to the ground and a new and bigger one was built.
Doing this was not cheap, as you can imagine. But, she is getting on in years and wanted to make sure that her son (now about to turn 50) didn't have to face trying to keep up a house that was over sixty years old and way too small. She spared no expense on the house and I must say it is very comfortable, more spacious and energy efficient to the max using on-demand hot water, solar energy and LED lighting. Natural gas is still used for cooking, though.
However, being a new house didn't take into consideration that the backyard was still unusable as a place to enjoy. The front yard had been xeriscaped several years before she had the house rebuilt, but the backyard had been neglected. My friend and I are now too old to do heavy work, so the backyard remained in disrepair for the most part. It wasn't cluttered with junk or anything, but it was just the normal sand found in the high desert of New Mexico and devoid of trees. The trees that were there originally, died and were removed some 20 years earlier.
A little over a month ago she stopped by for her twice-a-week visit. She wanted to tell us that she arranged with her attorney to give my friend ownership of the house when she dies, but with the stipulation that her son could live in it until he reached his own retirement and then to a senior facilitiy that provides for the developmentally disabled. She is big on long-term planning.
Not only were we stunned by her gift, but gobsmacked when she told us to use the credit card she gave us for emergencies we might experience, toward rectifying the problem with the backyard. We were to put in a vinyl privacy fence around the property. Install a patio with a steel patio cover and get good quality patio furniture for it. Have new trees planted, purchase a new large utility shed and have the entire yard landscaped to include a fountain big enough for her son to wade in (he likes to wade in water). When we suggested a patio 8 feet by 12 feet, she said absolutely not and said to make it 18 feet by 26 feet. "Room to spread out," she said.
She insisted that her son be his own guardian and through the years he has gone from sitting on the floor rocking back and forth to a man with a custodial job at the local Air Force Base using a Job Coach and holds a 3rd degree Black Belt in Karate. Granted, he earned them without being able to defend himself very well, but with his dedication over the years by trying. He also votes and is a proud Democrat. Just because he is autistic, doesn't mean he does not listen to the news. He follows the candidates and tells us who he wants to vote for and we help him mark his ballot, since he cannot read or communicate that well.
Well, work has begun and is approaching the final stages. She has come over several times and told us that it looks very good and she is pleased with it, as are we. Then she dropped another bombshell on us. She told us that when she passes one of the three trust fund incomes will be ours, while the other two will more than adequately provide for her son after we are gone. She always tells us how much she appreciates how well we take care of her son and allowing her to have a life of her own after so many years of struggle. She always gives us a nice Christmas. We have our dignity intact with this arrangement because we work for what we receive.
This woman is much older than we are and I am much older than my friend. So he will hopefully have a nice retirement after I am gone. He does get a small salary from the State to help take care of the young man and I get my $799 a month Social Security. Together, we pay for our own groceries and necessities.
So the moral of this true story is there are rich people, with generous hearts, who share their wealth and humanity with those who have little. I think people like her know what being an American is all about and live it every day with grace and humility.
I wish all rich people were more like her. It would be a better world.
All three of us are looking forward to being able to eat on a patio, rather than on the front porch, like we usually do on hot summer evenings. I even bought us a new pitcher for our lemonade. Summer, he we come!