Social workers reviewed each case and paid directly for transportation, food, lodging, and medicine.

“Helping someone isn’t solving their whole life for them,” she told a reporter. “It’s offering the right tools without becoming the tool yourself.”

The foundation also ran free workshops on personal debt, family boundaries, and financial abuse of the elderly. Abigail insisted that no caregiver should ever sign documents under pressure or hand over bank details — not even to their own child.

Her shame had turned into a warning that could protect other women.

One afternoon she went back to St. Jude to see the program in operation. Outside room 12 she found a tired woman counting coins while minding a small daughter.

“I’m still a long way from bus fare back to Maplewood,” the woman murmured.