“This is absurd,” she spat, turning to my children.

“I’ll go straight to the probate judge.

I’ll tell the court your mother is mentally unfit to hold a single penny of this!”

“I took care of that too, Shirley,” I said calmly.

“This past Tuesday I had a full cognitive evaluation with Dr.

Halloran — precisely because I knew you would try exactly this.

He has certified my complete competence in writing, and he is prepared to say so in any courtroom you would like to drag us into.

I had done that evaluation on the Tuesday for exactly this reason, sitting in Dr.