A middle-aged wealthy man, around 42, with dark black hair, muscular build, and who wore the newest, hippest clothing, received an unusual phone call at work one day.
“Good morning, this is Alex. How can I help you?”
“Good morning Alex, this is Anthony, from Anthony, Stein, and Whopper Law firm. I am calling to inform you that your Uncle Joey, is in a nursing home and has a will that needs your attention.”
“My attention? Why Me? I mean, I know he’s in a nursing home and has been for several years, but what do I have to do with his will?”
“Well sir, I would be happy to explain all of this if you can come down to my office. Please set up a time with my secretary, and I’ll see you then.”
Two days later, Alex showed up to meet Anthony. He sat down in his office, and they began to talk.
“It’s nice to meet you Alex. I know you’re very busy,” Anthony said.
“I am busy. In fact, I’m swamped! I am losing money just sitting here with you, so I hope this is somehow relevant to me making more money.”
“Well, unfortunately, this isn’t necessarily about money. You see, your uncle doesn’t have any money. He is living off the state and federal government to pay his expenses at the Fond Memories Retirement Home.”
“Then why am I here?”
“Well, your uncle was just given an end-stage diagnosis and is now under Hospice Care. His will stipulates that you, his nephew, should spend time with him until he passes.”
“Wait a minute. Are you telling me that he wrote a will that says I need to spend time with him when he reaches the end part of his life? Why me? I mean, he has three ex-wives who don’t seem to care much about him. His brother put him in this crap hole years ago to die.
I haven’t seen him for some time. And if he doesn’t have any money, what is the incentive for me to waste my precious time visiting an old man?”
“Here is what the will says; ‘I, Joseph Abermitzy, do hereby request that my nephew, Alex Abermitzy, visit me and comfort me in the final days of my life. Upon such completion and satisfaction of such, I will give Alex one box, holding a priceless valuable that could change his life.’”
“A priceless valuable? What could that be?”
“It does not say here in the will.”
“Do his ex-wives or brother and sister-in-law know about this secret box?”
“That, I do not know. I’m sure his family was notified of his end-stage diagnosis. But they do not know of this will and this provision in it. I would venture to say that you may be the only one who knows of this,” Anthony said.
“How long have you had this will?”
“I’ve had the will for over ten years. Way before your uncle became ill.”
“Ten years, hah. We used to spend a lot of holidays and birthdays together years back when we all were healthy, vibrant, and my parents were still alive.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what happened that you all stopped seeing each other?” Anthony asked.
Alex sat all the way back in the chair, crossed his left leg over his right, and put his right hand to his chin.
“I don’t mind you asking. Basically, my uncle made a lot of money and became a jerk to the rest of the family. He knew his two brothers didn’t have much, but he would sort of make fun of them for what they did have.
I remember one Christmas, when we were all exchanging gifts, he said out loud, ‘Did you guys buy your kids' gifts at a dollar store? That stuff is so cheap looking.’
Everyone just stopped, and our mouths dropped open. Our parents were mortified because they did buy some of the gifts at a cheap retailer. They didn’t have much money and wanted to give us more gifts, to make it look special, and that they were more well off, than they really were. My two cousins and I were young, we didn’t know.
Our parents were just called cheapskates right in front of us by one of their own. This sort of incident happened in one way or another every birthday and holiday. Needless to say, these hurt feelings continued on and on. My uncle would give each of us kids $100 for our birthday and Christmas. We were so delighted and always gave him big hugs.
It caused a lot of arguing and soon, he wasn’t invited over anymore.”
“What happened to you? Why did you stop seeing your family?”
“I just became very busy with work. I am a financial advisor. I turn wealth, into more wealth. I help rich people and those well off make good investments to make them more money. I need to meet with them at many different places and hours, to fit their schedule. They are too busy to come to see me, so I go see them. It could be at their home, place of work, at lunch, or even the golf course.
I do make a lot of money, as I make a commission on what they make in new wealth. If they don’t make anything, I don’t either. If they lose, I compensate for that loss. I need to be very careful. Not many advisors make these guarantees to cover their losses. But I also make more when they make money, so it pays off.”
“The time you spend with your clients, does that interfere with your personal life?” Anthony asked.
“Oh, absolutely! I am out at all hours, flying around the country and I don’t have time for a wife and kids. I have a few girlfriends living in different parts of the country. But nothing serious. When I’m in town, we ‘play.’ But, that’s it. I take them out and spend a lot of money on them, and we have a good time.”
“Have you missed having a family?”
“Sure. But what I do just doesn’t allow for it. It’s a tradeoff. Money or family. In my profession, it’s one or the other.”
“You said your uncle had money. What happened with his money?”
“He spent it all on drugs, hookers, and gambling. He spent it as he earned it. He had three wives and lost them all. No kids. But he always had a fondness for me. When I started making real money, he would tell me how proud he was of me. He would say, ‘Now you don’t have to buy your kids crap from the cheap stores to make yourself look good.
When he became ill, he couldn’t make any more money and then became dependent on his brother and sister-in-law. He had no kids, and his ex-wives didn’t want any more to do with him, especially since he wasn’t making any more money.”
After Alex finished talking, he stood up and thanked Anthony. He walked out and went back to his office, not giving much thought to seeing his uncle.
But then, he had several nights of dreams from those family get-togethers, which made him want to go see his uncle and what was going on.
Three days after meeting with Anthony, he showed up at the Fond Memories Retirement Home. As soon as he pulled into the gravel parking lot, he could see the place needed significant repairs.
The roof was missing shingles, the windows were old and had cracks, trees were dead, and the sidewalks were cracked and uneven.
When he walked in, whoosh, a terrible smell of urine smacked him in the face. As he walked toward the nurses' station, his feet were sticking to the floor. He passed older residents, confined to wheelchairs, some looking at him, others seemingly staring into space.
He walked slowly and peered into a few of the bedrooms. He could hear alarms going off and lights flashing above residents doors. A few residents were hollering for a nurse or just yelling to be heard.
As he reached the nurses' station, he observed three people sitting behind the desk; one charting, one on the phone and another checking her cell phone.
“Excuse me, I’m here to see my uncle.”
“Sign-in. We’ll be right with you,” said the nurse that was charting.
When the receptionist on the phone hung up, she said, “How can I help you?”
“Hi, I’m here to see my Uncle Joey.”
“What is his last name, sir?”
“His name is Joseph Abermitzy.”
“Hold on. OK. He is in room 412, bed B.”
“Thank you.”
As Alex started walking away, the receptionist called out to him, “Don’t forget your visitor badge.”
He came back to get it and then she said, “You wouldn’t want to be mistaken for a patient?” in a chuckling manner.
Alex set forth to find his uncle’s room. He went all the way down the hall and saw more residents in wheelchairs and crying for someone, anyone. One lady he passed looked him right in the eyes and pleaded with him, “Please, sir, help me get out of here.”
Alex was now deep into what this place had to offer. “This is a holding facility for death,” he thought.
He found room 412. He looked inside the darkly lit room, with the flickering light from the TV. There were three beds in the room, the one closest to the door had the curtain pulled around, and several people were helping whoever was in that bed.
He was hesitant to go in and just stood in the doorway, waiting for someone to tell him it was okay to go in. After a few minutes, the two workers finished with the resident, pulled the curtain back and asked if they could help Alex.
“Yes, I’m here to see Joseph. I’m his nephew, Alex.”
“Oh, hi Alex. We’ve been expecting you,” Rita, the aide said.
“You have?”
“Oh, yes. He has talked about you for some time now. He said my big shot nephew will be visiting me soon,” Ollie, the other aid said.
“Well that’s nice to hear, I guess?”
Ollie then said, “Your uncle is down in the rec room. That’s where he spends a lot of his time. He enjoys making comments to the other residents and yelling at the staff.”
“That’s terrible,” Alex said.
“We’re used to it, Rita jokingly answered back. “But we do wish he was a little nicer. We try hard to take care of him, but we are short staffed and can only do so much.”
“How has he been?”
“He’s getting sicker. He reached the final stage. He now has cancer in 70% of his body. He has probably outlived his demise several times over. But the cancer really spread recently, and he is withholding any medication or treatment,” Ollie explained.
“Has he given up?”
“Not given up, but ready. He is very lonely. No one comes to see him, and he just has a bad attitude. When the doctor gave him the news that he has reached the end, he sort of got in a happier mood, because he knew you were coming. We’re not quite sure how he knew that. But here you are,” Ollie said.
Alex thanked them for the information and went down to the rec room to find his uncle. He couldn’t get over the strong odor of urine and at times, the strong smell of feces. Nor he could ignore the alarms going off and people hollering.
As he entered the large rec room, he was taken back by how many residents were in there playing cards, watching TV, staring out the windows, or just sleeping in their wheelchairs. He looked around for his uncle, who he hadn’t seen in some time and certainly not since he has become sick. He wasn’t sure what he looked like.
An employee walked up to him and asked if she could help.
“Yes, I’m looking for Joseph, Joseph Abermitzy.”
“Are you Alex?”
“Yes, I am.”
“He has been expecting you. He is over there in the corner, reading a book.”
“Thank you.”
Alex started walking over to where his uncle was sitting. His hair was all white, and he looked very old and tired. His face was weathered, and his skin was yellowish, with brown spots throughout. He had a blue sweater, buttoned up to the neck as if he was cold.
The last time Alex saw his uncle, he was vibrant and much younger looking.
“Man, he has really aged. He looks bad,” Alex thought to himself.
He walked up to him, and before he could say anything, his uncle put down the book, looked up at him and said, “What took you so long? I could have already died by the time you got here.”
“Well, it’s good to see you too, Uncle Joey.”
“Have a seat. Stay for a bit and let’s shoot the breeze.”
Alex sat down next to his uncle. His uncle bookmarked his page and put the book on the table. He then took a sip of his tea, and then said, “I’m glad you decided to come. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you.”
“It has been a long time. I’ve been swamped working and traveling,” said Alex.
“Well, I’ve been busy too. Busy letting this cancer ravage my body. Busy giving all these people crap and keeping them on their toes.”
“I’m sorry to hear you’re in the situation you’re in, Uncle Joey.”
“Are you, Alex. Are you really sorry? Because I’ve been sick for three years now. The last two I’ve spent in here. In this crap hole where people come to die. Yet, I haven’t seen you once. Not one visit, one call, or even one card. It seems to me that you only came because of my lawyer calling you for my final wishes upon the last part of life.
I know you, don’t bullshit me. You’re as greedy as I used to be. You want to know what’s in the box I may give you. That’s why you’re here. Otherwise, I could just die and maybe, just maybe, and only if you weren’t doing anything special, would you come to my funeral.
Do I have all that right?”
Alex sat quietly for a moment, now guarded and uneasy.
“If you want me to be honest, yes, that is all true.”
“Right. But, I’m glad you’re here. Why don’t you go get us some tea or coffee? The machine is over by the counter.”
Alex took his uncles cup for a refill and headed over to the coffee machine. He passed one resident who sat in her wheelchair and talked to herself. Another was just tapping her left leg over and over.
He got to the machine and made his uncle another cup of tea and poured himself a cup of coffee. As he walked back, an old, frail lady walked up to him, grabbed his right arm, and said, “Do you know where my family is? I am so lonely. Do you know where they are? They told me they would be coming.”
“No, I’m sorry. I don’t know where your family is. I wish I did,” Alex said to her.
She let go of his arm, and she just walked away. Alex brought the tea to his uncle and sat down again.
“Don’t mind that old lady. She is always thinking her family is coming to visit. But they never do. Most of these people never have any visitors.”
“That’s a shame. I feel sorry for them,” Alex said.
“Most people don’t feel sorry for these people. They want to believe they are well taken care of and enjoying themselves. That couldn’t be any further from the truth. These people are written off from society. They put their old, sick, and in need of care elders in here and go on with their lives.”
“Has anyone from our family come to visit?”
“My brother visited a few times when I first came in. He never brought his wife or their two kids. He told me his wife didn’t want the kids to visit this place, because of what they may see.”
“Wow. What a shame,” Alex tried to sympathize.
“I don’t blame them too much, though. I was a real ass for a while. I had money and thought my crap didn’t stink. But in the end, my free life and bad habits kept me from keeping those I loved and who loved me.
I let those people down. I bit them when they tried to feed me. In my eyes, everyone was inferior. Now, look around you. Who is inferior now?”
Alex’s attention was divided between his uncle’s talking and what was going on around him. He saw people who were desperate for any attention, who wanted to see their loved ones, and others not getting the care they deserved. He was starting to take pity on them and even his uncle.
His phone kept receiving calls, and he knew he needed to go and start answering them. Business was business.
“I’m sorry, but I need to go. I have a lot of things to tend to, and people have been trying to reach me,” he explained.
“I understand. They’re probably calling to ask you how to make more money.”
“Actually, you’re probably right. They come into money and right away, they call me and ask how to make more.”
“Yep. Greed and money. It’s never enough. People will use other humans and will let them die or be killed for money. I, myself, let everything slip away from me because of it,” Joseph said.
Alex then paused and looked at his uncle. This old, dying man was now confessing his faults and mistakes. Lonely, here to just die. And instead of fighting, he has welcomed this day.
“I will come back soon to visit you again, I promise.”
“I hope you do, Alex. I’d like to see you again.”
Alex shook his uncle's hand and walked back to the nurses' station. He turned his visitor badge in and signed out. “Have a nice day,” he said to the lady as he walked out toward the door.
As he headed out the door and into the fresh air, he stopped, turned and looked at the building. Then turned back around and got in his fancy sports car and sped away.
Alex went on with his normal life, even going across the county for business and spending time with one of his girlfriends. He would periodically think of his uncle on the plane and when driving. But as soon as he would start to feel sad, he would put on some music to take his mind off of it.
Sometimes, he would think to himself, “He deserved this. Look what he did to his life. He brought this on himself.”
Part 2. - Conclusion
Six days had passed since Alex last seen his uncle. After making the most money he ever made in one day, he took his girlfriend out in New York, and they partied until the early hours of the morning.
When he woke up the next day, he discovered he was in bed by himself. He thought his girlfriend was in the bathroom or the kitchen, maybe making them breakfast. After ten minutes and not smelling anything cooking, he got up to check on her.
She was nowhere to be found, and as he discovered, nor was his wallet and several valuable items in his apartment.
“She ripped me off!” he said out loud.
He called the credit card companies and found there was over $100,000 of charges and cash withdrawn since 4:00 a.m. that morning.
Alex was not only upset, bewildered, but also heartbroken. He had dated Monica for over three months. He moved her into his apartment just last month because she needed a place to stay.
As the day wore on, he started to realize that he’d been played. He was taken advantage of. Monica was beautiful and had a very sexy body. That’s what made him fall for her in the club that first night.
Alex had one other apartment and a house and two other girlfriends in other cities. But only one more living with him, in Los Angeles. They’d been going out for several years, and he was probably the most serious about her.
But he sure couldn’t tell her about what happened. And since all he had in his life was three girlfriends (two now), who could, he tell? Who could he talk to?
He then thought of his Uncle Joey. He decided on his way back to Orlando that he would visit him and tell him what happened.
When Alex arrived at the retirement home, he again noticed all the same things he did when he first came; the building was in disrepair, the residents were not being attended too, the strong smell of urine, all the same, but yet still very relevant in his mind.
When Alex came to his uncles' room, he found him in bed, watching tv.
“Hey, Uncle Joey, how come you’re not in the rec room reading and bugging everyone?”
“Hi, Alex. Too tired and I don’t feel that good. The last few days have been bad. Don’t feel like eating much, and I’m just so tired.”
“Sorry to hear that. Mind if I sit and talk for a bit?”
“Absolutely, please do. I was hoping you’d come back.”
Alex found a chair and sat down in the dark room, in between his uncle’s bed and the other resident to the right of him, in bed 3. That resident had his curtain closed, and Alex thought he was asleep. The moment he sat down, the resident started moaning,
“So, what have you been up to this past week?” asked his uncle.
“I’ve been in New York doing business. Yesterday, I discovered my girlfriend took my wallet and some other valuables from my apartment early in the morning.”
“She robbed, you, huh?”
“Yes, she did.”
“How much did she charge on your cards?”
“All three combined, $100,000.”
“That sounds like it could have been a professional job,” the uncle said.
“I don’t know. But now I wonder about the other two girls.”
“You have two more? Holy cow, you must be some kind of lover with staying power.”
“Not really. I only see each of them every two to three weeks. It’s not like I’m seeing them one night after the next.”
“I only had one wife at a time, but then usually a girlfriend on the side. I also didn’t travel as you do. But I sometimes was tired of trying to juggle two women,” his uncle said.
As Alex and his uncle continued to talk, the resident in bed three continued to moan and groan, as if he was in severe pain. He would sometimes say, “Kill me, please.”
“Did he just say, ‘Kill me, please?’” Alex asked his uncle.
“Yes. He has been in serious pain for days, and they can’t get a hold of his doctor. He is dying, and sometimes the doctors are too busy playing golf or out seeing other patients and don’t have the time to properly care for many of the residents here.”
“I feel bad for him,” Alex said.
“If you were here longer, you’d see many here are in the same situation. Most of them don’t have family that visits, so they don’t often have an advocate to fight for them. My family doesn’t care about me, so I decided the hell with them. If they don’t want me, I’ll just check out.”
Alex was taken back by everything he just heard. These poor residents were left purposely to spend the rest of their lives.
“When families bring in their loved ones, they all have good intentions. They feel like their loved ones we’ll get that ‘round the clock nursing care’ they need, be happy around others their same age, and they plan on visiting them often.
But, most of the time, families start to become less focused on those that are no longer in their sight and care. The visits come further and further apart, as they are now ‘too busy’ to visit. I believe it gets too depressing for many and they just pray for the best that their loved ones are well taken care of.”
“I have to admit, Uncle Joey, this place is depressing. I mean, this place is begging for help. It smells awful. The staff seems overworked and unhappy.”
“The main reason is money. Many of these places are owned by bigger companies. They lobby for lax regulation and run these places with minimal staff and rake in the profits for themselves.”
Then, there was a loud thud heard from across the hall in another room. Right after, a woman screamed at the top of her lungs. Alex got up and ran over to the doorway to look at what happened. He could see the lady on the floor yelling in pain.
“Don’t help her, Alex. Let the staff get to her. You could be held liable,” his Uncle shouted.
The staff took their time to get to the patient. Alex felt terrible for her. He went back to his uncles' bedside and said, “Why do they take so long to help someone like that?”
“She wasn’t properly secured in bed, I imagine, and she tried to get up and fell. They feel like it’s her fault and she should know better.”
After listening to her yelling and the moaning resident next to him, Alex decided he had had enough and needed to go.
“I’m sorry, Uncle Joey, but I can’t take this anymore. I’ve got to go; otherwise, I’ll wind up saying something to the administrators.”
“I understand, don’t worry. Come back when you can. I’m glad you stopped by.”
Alex left and knew he had to take care of a few things in his life. He went home and told his girlfriend he and she were through. He then flew out to Los Angeles and asked Beverly for her hand in marriage. He also convinced her to move to his main home in Orlando, close to where his uncle was at.
Three weeks had passed since seeing Uncle Joey, and he knew he needed to pay him a visit. He told Beverly he would be gone for a short while and left. As Alex started getting close to the retirement home, he saw blackish smoke rising in the air and then firetrucks passing him in the same direction.
His heart started racing as he got closer, worried that the retirement home may be on fire. As he turned the corner, he saw about six fire engines, paramedic vehicles, and a few police cruisers. He parked down the street and walked up to where many of the residents were being brought to, from the home.
He started looking for his uncle among all the residents, many in wheelchairs, and some still in their beds, but couldn’t find him. He heard one of the firemen say everything was under control, and that they salvaged most of the building.
There was a lot of confusion and the minimal staff the retirement home had was helping the firemen bring out the other residents. He recognized Rita, the aide, and asked her where his uncle was.
“We’re trying to get to him, honey. Give us a few minutes.”
Alex waited a few minutes and realized the staff needed help getting the residents moved around. He then started to ask what he could do. The residents were so frightened and confused. But they were quick to smile and thank him.
“We need a strong, young, good looking man around here to help us all the time,” an elderly lady with light blue hair said to him as he pushed her under a tree.
The fire was out, but there was a lot of smoke still in the building. As some patients came out, they had oxygen masks on, and a few were on gurneys being taken to the ambulance and then driven off to the hospital.
After about an hour, almost all the patients were out and accounted for. Alex kept helping and talking with some of the residents to help them calm down. A few of them wondered where they would sleep that night.
Alex then heard a fireman tell one of the administrators that the fire looked to be electrical. Then, Rita came over and told Alex the news he didn’t want to hear.
“I’m so sorry, but we found your uncle. He, unfortunately, has passed away. He had been very weak in the last few weeks and didn’t eat much. He just laid in bed and watched tv or slept. Occasionally, he would ask if you had come to visit him.
It looks like he may have succumbed to smoke inhalation, as the fire broke out in the next room. I’ve told them about the faulty outlets for years, but do you think they ever did anything?”
Alex stood there in disbelief. “After all these years,” he thought, “I was starting to get to know my uncle and learn a thing or two about life.”
Then he watched as a body on a stretcher was wheeled out from the building, in a zipped bag, and loaded into the back of the Coroners van.
After a few minutes, Rita walked back up to Alex again and said, “Your uncle asked that if anything happened to him, that we give this box to you. Here you go, this was in his top drawer, and he wanted you to have it. Again, I’m sorry about your loss. He certainly did appreciate your visits and told everyone about you.”
“Thank you, Rita. I appreciate all you’ve done for my uncle and for your kind words and deeds.”
Alex drove quietly home, gave a long hug to his wife, Beverly, and went into his office, closed the door, and just sat and reflected for a while. He pulled the little box Rita gave him out of his pocket and looked at it.
It was a blue velvet box. The size and shape of a ring box. “What is so important about this box, that he had to put it in his will?” he thought.
He paused, then opened it slowly. Inside, fell out a tiny piece of folded paper.
He put the box down and opened the tightly folded paper. It was a hand-written note. He turned it toward him to read.
It said, “Alex, don’t live your life as I did, or you will be an old, lonely man like me. Live your life with love, and you will always be happy! Thanks for being there for me in the end. You gave me something to look forward to. I hope it helped you as well. Take care. Your Uncle Joey.”
Alex put the note down and started to tear up. For years, he hadn’t cried a tear, but now, tears started cascading down his checks, and he was choking up. He thought about how his uncle did this to help him change his life. How selfless he turned out to be.
He swelled up in a full cry and said, “That old man saved my life!”
Indeed, his uncle, the retirement home, and the residents made such a profound impact on him, that he retired, sold his financial advising business, and bought the Fond Memories Retirement Home. With the help of his wife, Beverly, they had it redesigned and remodeled to look like a real retirement home young people would like to stay at. It’s now more like a resort.
Alex and Beverly hired many new staff members and new administrators. Rita and Ollie are now supervisors. Alex renamed the home, The Joseph A. Retirement Community.
Alex now has two kids and visits the home four times a week to spend time with the residents and help out.
“On time. Here comes that young man and his family now. It’s going to be another great family night,” the elderly lady with the light Blue hair, happily said.
E.
“Good morning, this is Alex. How can I help you?”
“Good morning Alex, this is Anthony, from Anthony, Stein, and Whopper Law firm. I am calling to inform you that your Uncle Joey, is in a nursing home and has a will that needs your attention.”
“My attention? Why Me? I mean, I know he’s in a nursing home and has been for several years, but what do I have to do with his will?”
“Well sir, I would be happy to explain all of this if you can come down to my office. Please set up a time with my secretary, and I’ll see you then.”
Two days later, Alex showed up to meet Anthony. He sat down in his office, and they began to talk.
“It’s nice to meet you Alex. I know you’re very busy,” Anthony said.
“I am busy. In fact, I’m swamped! I am losing money just sitting here with you, so I hope this is somehow relevant to me making more money.”
“Well, unfortunately, this isn’t necessarily about money. You see, your uncle doesn’t have any money. He is living off the state and federal government to pay his expenses at the Fond Memories Retirement Home.”
“Then why am I here?”
“Well, your uncle was just given an end-stage diagnosis and is now under Hospice Care. His will stipulates that you, his nephew, should spend time with him until he passes.”
“Wait a minute. Are you telling me that he wrote a will that says I need to spend time with him when he reaches the end part of his life? Why me? I mean, he has three ex-wives who don’t seem to care much about him. His brother put him in this crap hole years ago to die.
I haven’t seen him for some time. And if he doesn’t have any money, what is the incentive for me to waste my precious time visiting an old man?”
“Here is what the will says; ‘I, Joseph Abermitzy, do hereby request that my nephew, Alex Abermitzy, visit me and comfort me in the final days of my life. Upon such completion and satisfaction of such, I will give Alex one box, holding a priceless valuable that could change his life.’”
“A priceless valuable? What could that be?”
“It does not say here in the will.”
“Do his ex-wives or brother and sister-in-law know about this secret box?”
“That, I do not know. I’m sure his family was notified of his end-stage diagnosis. But they do not know of this will and this provision in it. I would venture to say that you may be the only one who knows of this,” Anthony said.
“How long have you had this will?”
“I’ve had the will for over ten years. Way before your uncle became ill.”
“Ten years, hah. We used to spend a lot of holidays and birthdays together years back when we all were healthy, vibrant, and my parents were still alive.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what happened that you all stopped seeing each other?” Anthony asked.
Alex sat all the way back in the chair, crossed his left leg over his right, and put his right hand to his chin.
“I don’t mind you asking. Basically, my uncle made a lot of money and became a jerk to the rest of the family. He knew his two brothers didn’t have much, but he would sort of make fun of them for what they did have.
I remember one Christmas, when we were all exchanging gifts, he said out loud, ‘Did you guys buy your kids' gifts at a dollar store? That stuff is so cheap looking.’
Everyone just stopped, and our mouths dropped open. Our parents were mortified because they did buy some of the gifts at a cheap retailer. They didn’t have much money and wanted to give us more gifts, to make it look special, and that they were more well off, than they really were. My two cousins and I were young, we didn’t know.
Our parents were just called cheapskates right in front of us by one of their own. This sort of incident happened in one way or another every birthday and holiday. Needless to say, these hurt feelings continued on and on. My uncle would give each of us kids $100 for our birthday and Christmas. We were so delighted and always gave him big hugs.
It caused a lot of arguing and soon, he wasn’t invited over anymore.”
“What happened to you? Why did you stop seeing your family?”
“I just became very busy with work. I am a financial advisor. I turn wealth, into more wealth. I help rich people and those well off make good investments to make them more money. I need to meet with them at many different places and hours, to fit their schedule. They are too busy to come to see me, so I go see them. It could be at their home, place of work, at lunch, or even the golf course.
I do make a lot of money, as I make a commission on what they make in new wealth. If they don’t make anything, I don’t either. If they lose, I compensate for that loss. I need to be very careful. Not many advisors make these guarantees to cover their losses. But I also make more when they make money, so it pays off.”
“The time you spend with your clients, does that interfere with your personal life?” Anthony asked.
“Oh, absolutely! I am out at all hours, flying around the country and I don’t have time for a wife and kids. I have a few girlfriends living in different parts of the country. But nothing serious. When I’m in town, we ‘play.’ But, that’s it. I take them out and spend a lot of money on them, and we have a good time.”
“Have you missed having a family?”
“Sure. But what I do just doesn’t allow for it. It’s a tradeoff. Money or family. In my profession, it’s one or the other.”
“You said your uncle had money. What happened with his money?”
“He spent it all on drugs, hookers, and gambling. He spent it as he earned it. He had three wives and lost them all. No kids. But he always had a fondness for me. When I started making real money, he would tell me how proud he was of me. He would say, ‘Now you don’t have to buy your kids crap from the cheap stores to make yourself look good.
When he became ill, he couldn’t make any more money and then became dependent on his brother and sister-in-law. He had no kids, and his ex-wives didn’t want any more to do with him, especially since he wasn’t making any more money.”
After Alex finished talking, he stood up and thanked Anthony. He walked out and went back to his office, not giving much thought to seeing his uncle.
But then, he had several nights of dreams from those family get-togethers, which made him want to go see his uncle and what was going on.
Three days after meeting with Anthony, he showed up at the Fond Memories Retirement Home. As soon as he pulled into the gravel parking lot, he could see the place needed significant repairs.
The roof was missing shingles, the windows were old and had cracks, trees were dead, and the sidewalks were cracked and uneven.
When he walked in, whoosh, a terrible smell of urine smacked him in the face. As he walked toward the nurses' station, his feet were sticking to the floor. He passed older residents, confined to wheelchairs, some looking at him, others seemingly staring into space.
He walked slowly and peered into a few of the bedrooms. He could hear alarms going off and lights flashing above residents doors. A few residents were hollering for a nurse or just yelling to be heard.
As he reached the nurses' station, he observed three people sitting behind the desk; one charting, one on the phone and another checking her cell phone.
“Excuse me, I’m here to see my uncle.”
“Sign-in. We’ll be right with you,” said the nurse that was charting.
When the receptionist on the phone hung up, she said, “How can I help you?”
“Hi, I’m here to see my Uncle Joey.”
“What is his last name, sir?”
“His name is Joseph Abermitzy.”
“Hold on. OK. He is in room 412, bed B.”
“Thank you.”
As Alex started walking away, the receptionist called out to him, “Don’t forget your visitor badge.”
He came back to get it and then she said, “You wouldn’t want to be mistaken for a patient?” in a chuckling manner.
Alex set forth to find his uncle’s room. He went all the way down the hall and saw more residents in wheelchairs and crying for someone, anyone. One lady he passed looked him right in the eyes and pleaded with him, “Please, sir, help me get out of here.”
Alex was now deep into what this place had to offer. “This is a holding facility for death,” he thought.
He found room 412. He looked inside the darkly lit room, with the flickering light from the TV. There were three beds in the room, the one closest to the door had the curtain pulled around, and several people were helping whoever was in that bed.
He was hesitant to go in and just stood in the doorway, waiting for someone to tell him it was okay to go in. After a few minutes, the two workers finished with the resident, pulled the curtain back and asked if they could help Alex.
“Yes, I’m here to see Joseph. I’m his nephew, Alex.”
“Oh, hi Alex. We’ve been expecting you,” Rita, the aide said.
“You have?”
“Oh, yes. He has talked about you for some time now. He said my big shot nephew will be visiting me soon,” Ollie, the other aid said.
“Well that’s nice to hear, I guess?”
Ollie then said, “Your uncle is down in the rec room. That’s where he spends a lot of his time. He enjoys making comments to the other residents and yelling at the staff.”
“That’s terrible,” Alex said.
“We’re used to it, Rita jokingly answered back. “But we do wish he was a little nicer. We try hard to take care of him, but we are short staffed and can only do so much.”
“How has he been?”
“He’s getting sicker. He reached the final stage. He now has cancer in 70% of his body. He has probably outlived his demise several times over. But the cancer really spread recently, and he is withholding any medication or treatment,” Ollie explained.
“Has he given up?”
“Not given up, but ready. He is very lonely. No one comes to see him, and he just has a bad attitude. When the doctor gave him the news that he has reached the end, he sort of got in a happier mood, because he knew you were coming. We’re not quite sure how he knew that. But here you are,” Ollie said.
Alex thanked them for the information and went down to the rec room to find his uncle. He couldn’t get over the strong odor of urine and at times, the strong smell of feces. Nor he could ignore the alarms going off and people hollering.
As he entered the large rec room, he was taken back by how many residents were in there playing cards, watching TV, staring out the windows, or just sleeping in their wheelchairs. He looked around for his uncle, who he hadn’t seen in some time and certainly not since he has become sick. He wasn’t sure what he looked like.
An employee walked up to him and asked if she could help.
“Yes, I’m looking for Joseph, Joseph Abermitzy.”
“Are you Alex?”
“Yes, I am.”
“He has been expecting you. He is over there in the corner, reading a book.”
“Thank you.”
Alex started walking over to where his uncle was sitting. His hair was all white, and he looked very old and tired. His face was weathered, and his skin was yellowish, with brown spots throughout. He had a blue sweater, buttoned up to the neck as if he was cold.
The last time Alex saw his uncle, he was vibrant and much younger looking.
“Man, he has really aged. He looks bad,” Alex thought to himself.
He walked up to him, and before he could say anything, his uncle put down the book, looked up at him and said, “What took you so long? I could have already died by the time you got here.”
“Well, it’s good to see you too, Uncle Joey.”
“Have a seat. Stay for a bit and let’s shoot the breeze.”
Alex sat down next to his uncle. His uncle bookmarked his page and put the book on the table. He then took a sip of his tea, and then said, “I’m glad you decided to come. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you.”
“It has been a long time. I’ve been swamped working and traveling,” said Alex.
“Well, I’ve been busy too. Busy letting this cancer ravage my body. Busy giving all these people crap and keeping them on their toes.”
“I’m sorry to hear you’re in the situation you’re in, Uncle Joey.”
“Are you, Alex. Are you really sorry? Because I’ve been sick for three years now. The last two I’ve spent in here. In this crap hole where people come to die. Yet, I haven’t seen you once. Not one visit, one call, or even one card. It seems to me that you only came because of my lawyer calling you for my final wishes upon the last part of life.
I know you, don’t bullshit me. You’re as greedy as I used to be. You want to know what’s in the box I may give you. That’s why you’re here. Otherwise, I could just die and maybe, just maybe, and only if you weren’t doing anything special, would you come to my funeral.
Do I have all that right?”
Alex sat quietly for a moment, now guarded and uneasy.
“If you want me to be honest, yes, that is all true.”
“Right. But, I’m glad you’re here. Why don’t you go get us some tea or coffee? The machine is over by the counter.”
Alex took his uncles cup for a refill and headed over to the coffee machine. He passed one resident who sat in her wheelchair and talked to herself. Another was just tapping her left leg over and over.
He got to the machine and made his uncle another cup of tea and poured himself a cup of coffee. As he walked back, an old, frail lady walked up to him, grabbed his right arm, and said, “Do you know where my family is? I am so lonely. Do you know where they are? They told me they would be coming.”
“No, I’m sorry. I don’t know where your family is. I wish I did,” Alex said to her.
She let go of his arm, and she just walked away. Alex brought the tea to his uncle and sat down again.
“Don’t mind that old lady. She is always thinking her family is coming to visit. But they never do. Most of these people never have any visitors.”
“That’s a shame. I feel sorry for them,” Alex said.
“Most people don’t feel sorry for these people. They want to believe they are well taken care of and enjoying themselves. That couldn’t be any further from the truth. These people are written off from society. They put their old, sick, and in need of care elders in here and go on with their lives.”
“Has anyone from our family come to visit?”
“My brother visited a few times when I first came in. He never brought his wife or their two kids. He told me his wife didn’t want the kids to visit this place, because of what they may see.”
“Wow. What a shame,” Alex tried to sympathize.
“I don’t blame them too much, though. I was a real ass for a while. I had money and thought my crap didn’t stink. But in the end, my free life and bad habits kept me from keeping those I loved and who loved me.
I let those people down. I bit them when they tried to feed me. In my eyes, everyone was inferior. Now, look around you. Who is inferior now?”
Alex’s attention was divided between his uncle’s talking and what was going on around him. He saw people who were desperate for any attention, who wanted to see their loved ones, and others not getting the care they deserved. He was starting to take pity on them and even his uncle.
His phone kept receiving calls, and he knew he needed to go and start answering them. Business was business.
“I’m sorry, but I need to go. I have a lot of things to tend to, and people have been trying to reach me,” he explained.
“I understand. They’re probably calling to ask you how to make more money.”
“Actually, you’re probably right. They come into money and right away, they call me and ask how to make more.”
“Yep. Greed and money. It’s never enough. People will use other humans and will let them die or be killed for money. I, myself, let everything slip away from me because of it,” Joseph said.
Alex then paused and looked at his uncle. This old, dying man was now confessing his faults and mistakes. Lonely, here to just die. And instead of fighting, he has welcomed this day.
“I will come back soon to visit you again, I promise.”
“I hope you do, Alex. I’d like to see you again.”
Alex shook his uncle's hand and walked back to the nurses' station. He turned his visitor badge in and signed out. “Have a nice day,” he said to the lady as he walked out toward the door.
As he headed out the door and into the fresh air, he stopped, turned and looked at the building. Then turned back around and got in his fancy sports car and sped away.
Alex went on with his normal life, even going across the county for business and spending time with one of his girlfriends. He would periodically think of his uncle on the plane and when driving. But as soon as he would start to feel sad, he would put on some music to take his mind off of it.
Sometimes, he would think to himself, “He deserved this. Look what he did to his life. He brought this on himself.”
Part 2. - Conclusion
Six days had passed since Alex last seen his uncle. After making the most money he ever made in one day, he took his girlfriend out in New York, and they partied until the early hours of the morning.
When he woke up the next day, he discovered he was in bed by himself. He thought his girlfriend was in the bathroom or the kitchen, maybe making them breakfast. After ten minutes and not smelling anything cooking, he got up to check on her.
She was nowhere to be found, and as he discovered, nor was his wallet and several valuable items in his apartment.
“She ripped me off!” he said out loud.
He called the credit card companies and found there was over $100,000 of charges and cash withdrawn since 4:00 a.m. that morning.
Alex was not only upset, bewildered, but also heartbroken. He had dated Monica for over three months. He moved her into his apartment just last month because she needed a place to stay.
As the day wore on, he started to realize that he’d been played. He was taken advantage of. Monica was beautiful and had a very sexy body. That’s what made him fall for her in the club that first night.
Alex had one other apartment and a house and two other girlfriends in other cities. But only one more living with him, in Los Angeles. They’d been going out for several years, and he was probably the most serious about her.
But he sure couldn’t tell her about what happened. And since all he had in his life was three girlfriends (two now), who could, he tell? Who could he talk to?
He then thought of his Uncle Joey. He decided on his way back to Orlando that he would visit him and tell him what happened.
When Alex arrived at the retirement home, he again noticed all the same things he did when he first came; the building was in disrepair, the residents were not being attended too, the strong smell of urine, all the same, but yet still very relevant in his mind.
When Alex came to his uncles' room, he found him in bed, watching tv.
“Hey, Uncle Joey, how come you’re not in the rec room reading and bugging everyone?”
“Hi, Alex. Too tired and I don’t feel that good. The last few days have been bad. Don’t feel like eating much, and I’m just so tired.”
“Sorry to hear that. Mind if I sit and talk for a bit?”
“Absolutely, please do. I was hoping you’d come back.”
Alex found a chair and sat down in the dark room, in between his uncle’s bed and the other resident to the right of him, in bed 3. That resident had his curtain closed, and Alex thought he was asleep. The moment he sat down, the resident started moaning,
“So, what have you been up to this past week?” asked his uncle.
“I’ve been in New York doing business. Yesterday, I discovered my girlfriend took my wallet and some other valuables from my apartment early in the morning.”
“She robbed, you, huh?”
“Yes, she did.”
“How much did she charge on your cards?”
“All three combined, $100,000.”
“That sounds like it could have been a professional job,” the uncle said.
“I don’t know. But now I wonder about the other two girls.”
“You have two more? Holy cow, you must be some kind of lover with staying power.”
“Not really. I only see each of them every two to three weeks. It’s not like I’m seeing them one night after the next.”
“I only had one wife at a time, but then usually a girlfriend on the side. I also didn’t travel as you do. But I sometimes was tired of trying to juggle two women,” his uncle said.
As Alex and his uncle continued to talk, the resident in bed three continued to moan and groan, as if he was in severe pain. He would sometimes say, “Kill me, please.”
“Did he just say, ‘Kill me, please?’” Alex asked his uncle.
“Yes. He has been in serious pain for days, and they can’t get a hold of his doctor. He is dying, and sometimes the doctors are too busy playing golf or out seeing other patients and don’t have the time to properly care for many of the residents here.”
“I feel bad for him,” Alex said.
“If you were here longer, you’d see many here are in the same situation. Most of them don’t have family that visits, so they don’t often have an advocate to fight for them. My family doesn’t care about me, so I decided the hell with them. If they don’t want me, I’ll just check out.”
Alex was taken back by everything he just heard. These poor residents were left purposely to spend the rest of their lives.
“When families bring in their loved ones, they all have good intentions. They feel like their loved ones we’ll get that ‘round the clock nursing care’ they need, be happy around others their same age, and they plan on visiting them often.
But, most of the time, families start to become less focused on those that are no longer in their sight and care. The visits come further and further apart, as they are now ‘too busy’ to visit. I believe it gets too depressing for many and they just pray for the best that their loved ones are well taken care of.”
“I have to admit, Uncle Joey, this place is depressing. I mean, this place is begging for help. It smells awful. The staff seems overworked and unhappy.”
“The main reason is money. Many of these places are owned by bigger companies. They lobby for lax regulation and run these places with minimal staff and rake in the profits for themselves.”
Then, there was a loud thud heard from across the hall in another room. Right after, a woman screamed at the top of her lungs. Alex got up and ran over to the doorway to look at what happened. He could see the lady on the floor yelling in pain.
“Don’t help her, Alex. Let the staff get to her. You could be held liable,” his Uncle shouted.
The staff took their time to get to the patient. Alex felt terrible for her. He went back to his uncles' bedside and said, “Why do they take so long to help someone like that?”
“She wasn’t properly secured in bed, I imagine, and she tried to get up and fell. They feel like it’s her fault and she should know better.”
After listening to her yelling and the moaning resident next to him, Alex decided he had had enough and needed to go.
“I’m sorry, Uncle Joey, but I can’t take this anymore. I’ve got to go; otherwise, I’ll wind up saying something to the administrators.”
“I understand, don’t worry. Come back when you can. I’m glad you stopped by.”
Alex left and knew he had to take care of a few things in his life. He went home and told his girlfriend he and she were through. He then flew out to Los Angeles and asked Beverly for her hand in marriage. He also convinced her to move to his main home in Orlando, close to where his uncle was at.
Three weeks had passed since seeing Uncle Joey, and he knew he needed to pay him a visit. He told Beverly he would be gone for a short while and left. As Alex started getting close to the retirement home, he saw blackish smoke rising in the air and then firetrucks passing him in the same direction.
His heart started racing as he got closer, worried that the retirement home may be on fire. As he turned the corner, he saw about six fire engines, paramedic vehicles, and a few police cruisers. He parked down the street and walked up to where many of the residents were being brought to, from the home.
He started looking for his uncle among all the residents, many in wheelchairs, and some still in their beds, but couldn’t find him. He heard one of the firemen say everything was under control, and that they salvaged most of the building.
There was a lot of confusion and the minimal staff the retirement home had was helping the firemen bring out the other residents. He recognized Rita, the aide, and asked her where his uncle was.
“We’re trying to get to him, honey. Give us a few minutes.”
Alex waited a few minutes and realized the staff needed help getting the residents moved around. He then started to ask what he could do. The residents were so frightened and confused. But they were quick to smile and thank him.
“We need a strong, young, good looking man around here to help us all the time,” an elderly lady with light blue hair said to him as he pushed her under a tree.
The fire was out, but there was a lot of smoke still in the building. As some patients came out, they had oxygen masks on, and a few were on gurneys being taken to the ambulance and then driven off to the hospital.
After about an hour, almost all the patients were out and accounted for. Alex kept helping and talking with some of the residents to help them calm down. A few of them wondered where they would sleep that night.
Alex then heard a fireman tell one of the administrators that the fire looked to be electrical. Then, Rita came over and told Alex the news he didn’t want to hear.
“I’m so sorry, but we found your uncle. He, unfortunately, has passed away. He had been very weak in the last few weeks and didn’t eat much. He just laid in bed and watched tv or slept. Occasionally, he would ask if you had come to visit him.
It looks like he may have succumbed to smoke inhalation, as the fire broke out in the next room. I’ve told them about the faulty outlets for years, but do you think they ever did anything?”
Alex stood there in disbelief. “After all these years,” he thought, “I was starting to get to know my uncle and learn a thing or two about life.”
Then he watched as a body on a stretcher was wheeled out from the building, in a zipped bag, and loaded into the back of the Coroners van.
After a few minutes, Rita walked back up to Alex again and said, “Your uncle asked that if anything happened to him, that we give this box to you. Here you go, this was in his top drawer, and he wanted you to have it. Again, I’m sorry about your loss. He certainly did appreciate your visits and told everyone about you.”
“Thank you, Rita. I appreciate all you’ve done for my uncle and for your kind words and deeds.”
Alex drove quietly home, gave a long hug to his wife, Beverly, and went into his office, closed the door, and just sat and reflected for a while. He pulled the little box Rita gave him out of his pocket and looked at it.
It was a blue velvet box. The size and shape of a ring box. “What is so important about this box, that he had to put it in his will?” he thought.
He paused, then opened it slowly. Inside, fell out a tiny piece of folded paper.
He put the box down and opened the tightly folded paper. It was a hand-written note. He turned it toward him to read.
It said, “Alex, don’t live your life as I did, or you will be an old, lonely man like me. Live your life with love, and you will always be happy! Thanks for being there for me in the end. You gave me something to look forward to. I hope it helped you as well. Take care. Your Uncle Joey.”
Alex put the note down and started to tear up. For years, he hadn’t cried a tear, but now, tears started cascading down his checks, and he was choking up. He thought about how his uncle did this to help him change his life. How selfless he turned out to be.
He swelled up in a full cry and said, “That old man saved my life!”
Indeed, his uncle, the retirement home, and the residents made such a profound impact on him, that he retired, sold his financial advising business, and bought the Fond Memories Retirement Home. With the help of his wife, Beverly, they had it redesigned and remodeled to look like a real retirement home young people would like to stay at. It’s now more like a resort.
Alex and Beverly hired many new staff members and new administrators. Rita and Ollie are now supervisors. Alex renamed the home, The Joseph A. Retirement Community.
Alex now has two kids and visits the home four times a week to spend time with the residents and help out.
“On time. Here comes that young man and his family now. It’s going to be another great family night,” the elderly lady with the light Blue hair, happily said.
E.