THE BIN BAG HAS fallen away from the window; a slow, clumsy rustle in the night. Freya tried to stick it back up but the tack has hardened. She’ll get more tomorrow. Or maybe she’ll use duct tape.
From the garden outside, a picket of solar lights, chillingly white, jumbles shadows across the bedroom wall: the slanted tower of the ironing board, the spindly forest of an old hamster cage.
The fold-out bed joggles and yelps when Freya turns on her side. She’s clutching her phone in both hands. Sticking out from the cowl of her blanket, her fingers are cold, and her nose. She’ll send the email. She’ll read over it one last time, and then she’ll send it.
From: Freya Kearney <kearneyfp@tcd.ie>
To: valerie.o.carroll32@gmail.com
Dear Valerie,
Hey Cos! I hope everything is going well over there? Grandma tells me you have a job on Love/Hate, and that you are engaged to be married? This may or may not be the case – it is hard to know where she gets some of the things she comes out with these days – but anyway, I hope things are good. Did you hear that Cara and Pat are expecting a baby next summer? In the last scan they said it looked like it’s another girl, but they couldn’t be certain.
Anyway, I am really emailing about Grandma. I want to explain my recent actions, ask your thoughts and fill you in on stuff you might not be aware of.
About a month ago, I received a letter re power of attorney. You probably received the same letter? Basically, it says your mum and Aunt Sinéad are to take power of attorney, but you, myself and Cara each have a right to object to it.
I think I should let you know all of the following information:
As you may or may not know, before Christmas there was a HSE enquiry into elder abuse regarding Grandma. I think only your mum and Sinéad were investigated and they both refused to co-operate. I don’t know why my mother wasn’t. She should have been.
Freya deletes She should have been.
Your mum sent an email about it saying there had been false allegations, but I am not convinced that they were false and I’m not sure if the HSE are either.
You may or may not be aware that my mother extracted a €100,000 cheque from Grandma very shortly after her fall. I am not sure if you saw much of Grandma after her fall, but I can assure you she was in no fit state to be making financial decisions. At a later date Grandma also told me that she thought they had sold her houses in Monkstown and Wicklow, and asked me to explain to her what was going on, adding ‘they tell me I gave you money and they want to make it fair on Valerie.’ Since Grandma moved out of her house, your mother has not let me in, even to collect boxes of my things from the attic.
When I received the letter re power of attorney last week, I sent an email enquiry to the Protection of the Elderly, outlining the situation and asking for advice. The woman who led the HSE investigation phoned me. She told me that there had been a HSE investigation already, and two GP reports which found that there was cause for concern regarding Grandma’s mental state and the behaviour of her children regarding her estate. She strongly advised that I object to power of attorney, and highlighted that, with the HSE recommendation, Grandma would almost certainly be made a ward of court if one of the notified parties objected.
There is limited time within which we can put in an objection to power of attorney, so Cara and I put in the objection this morning. We can always withdraw it. I want to know what you think?
On the one hand, maybe the emotional abuse that Grandma suffered while her children needed to persuade or bully her into changing the will, or writing cheques, would no longer take place if they could simply make the decisions for her? There would be no more tearful phone calls from her about what so and so said about her favouritism, or reminding me not to mention to anyone that she paid for Jem’s creche!
On the other, their behaviour so far has been disgusting and I see no reason why that would change. The HSE officer thinks it would offer Grandma more protection if she were to be made a ward of the court.
The HSE officer is Bernadette Murphy. Her email address is bernadette.murphy24@hse.ie
Freya
Freya reads it again from the beginning. The Cos thing is stupid, so she replaces it with How are you?
‘Mammy?’ Jem is hanging onto the door handle with both hands, his chin resting on them.
‘What is it, darling?’
‘Can’t sleep.’
‘What’s wrong?’
‘Mimi.’
‘Okay, come in here then.’
Freya checks the time – after midnight. She presses ‘send’, and switches off her phone.