passing

My elderly neighbor who lived across the street and down one passed away Sunday. She was in her 90s and had been in hospice care at home for months. She was one of the residents on this street when I moved in 36 years ago. There are only three other houses on the block with their original residents from when I moved in, not counting me of course. Some of the houses don't even exist anymore and Mrs. Lusher's house will soon be gone. Big Mary will have it sold in a heartbeat. She already has the sale lined up, arranged it months ago with one of the local builders, a couple that used to live in the house next door to Mrs. Lusher. They've already built four homes on the far end of the block and own the corner at the other end as well.

Mary and her brother have been trying to sell that house out from under her since she became incapacitated. Their youngest brother, Tom, lived with their mom, moved in to help when their dad was falling into dementia and broke his hip and then stayed on, caring for his mother when her health started failing. During one of her trips to the hospital, Big Mary and her brother went over to the house to try to find the deed. Their father had built a secret hidey hole in the house in which he kept important things like the deed. They searched fruitlessly and finally left. Tom knew where it was and Ms Lusher's grandson, Big Mary's son, also knew but they weren't telling.

Tom had health issues of his own and died last August leaving his mom to the mercy of his two siblings. Older Brother, who was rarely seen around the old homestead, was all for putting her in a nursing home so they could sell the house and he could get his share. He certainly wasn't going to put his life on hold and help take care of mom. In fact, Mary and big brother put the heavy pressure on Tom to move in with the 'rents in the first place, Tom being single and having no life in their opinion. But Big Mary, thinking that it would be a short time before mom bailed, decided to move in and take Tom's place and let the old woman die at home. Damn considerate of her considering Mr. and Mrs. Lusher raised Mary's two kids because Mary couldn't be bothered.

Big Mary finally got a taste of Tom's life. He tried for years to get some relief from his siblings, give him some time off, some time away to no avail. When Tom's own health became acute, they got a lady to come three days a week to help out but neither sibling spent so much as a night there to give Tom a break. Mary bent my ear more than once out in the street during the last year to tell me that she's been 'ordered' by the doctor to take a weekend a month off for her own mental and physical health, something that she absolutely denied her brother.

I'm sorry to see Ms Lusher go, one more link lost. She was one of the old timers, a staple in the neighborhood. Her family had all lived in the neighborhood too, in fact her aunt lived in the house next door to us. She watched our kids grow up and our grandkids as well, loved to see them all out playing in the yard. She would sit on her porch and the kids would all go talk to her. I have daffodils and a heritage rose that she gave me. She really loved those rose bushes, would talk about them as if they were her lady friends. One of the first things Big Mary did when she moved in was cut those rose shrubs in front of the house down to the ground for 'security'. It broke my heart and must have broken hers as well.