…you were diagnosed with moderate dementia six months ago by a Dr. Hollis. We’ve never heard of Dr. Hollis.”
My own doctor, Dr. Patel, called me himself that afternoon. He had never written anything of the kind. He had refused to sign my daughter’s request. He’d also noticed that the “Dr. Hollis” report had been faxed from a copy shop.
I called my daughter, Sarah, and asked her to come over. I put the email on the table.
She read it and looked genuinely confused. “Mom, I didn’t write this.”
I almost didn’t believe her. Then she pulled out her phone and checked her email account. The message had been sent from her laptop at 2 a.m., while she was at work on a night shift at the hospital. She was a nurse. She had a time card to prove it.
The only other person who used that laptop was her husband, Tom.
Tom had been the one encouraging her to “talk to Mom about power of attorney.” Tom had been the one who went to Dr. Patel’s office, claiming to be acting for Sarah. Tom had created the fake Dr. Hollis report. He was deeply in debt, and my house was worth more than everything they owned.
Sarah went to the police with me the next day. Tom was charged with forgery and attempted financial exploitation of an elder.
Sarah filed for divorce. She moved in with me for a few months, and we spent a lot of evenings sitting at my kitchen table, talking about how we’d both been lied to by the same man.
I still work four days a week. On my sixty-seventh birthday, Sarah gave me a framed copy of my real medical report. It said I was in perfect health. Underneath, she’d written, “Sharper than both of us.”
