“Because I spent ten years caring for other people’s parents,” Ezra said, and his voice was not quite steady, “while I let myself believe mine were fine.
This place is for people who need care and attention — and a family that won’t disappear on them because of one unanswered phone call.”
Wendell stepped forward and held his son for a long time.
“Then make sure,” he said, “that no one who walks through that door ever feels they have to pretend they don’t need help.”
That building became the first of a small effort Ezra built in the months after — legal experts and social workers who reviewed suspicious powers of attorney, forged accounts, predatory loans, watching for exactly the pattern that had nearly swallowed his own family.
His parents’ story stayed private.