My daughter-in-law laughed as she gave me a $2 scratch-off for my 73rd birthday. Ten months later, my own son shoved a senior living brochure in front of me and said, “We already picked your room.” They thought I was too old to fight back. They had no idea what I had been hiding.

Richard also suggested I write a personal letter to accompany the legal documents.

“What do you want them to remember?” he asked.

I thought a long time.

“That money is not proof of love,” I said.

“And neither is obedience.”

He looked up from his notes.

“That’s a good beginning.”

I wrote the letter in my own handwriting, with several false starts and crossed-out sentences.