Here is an exchange between me and mom’s good friend from her church, who spent an extraordinary amount of time working to help mom with all manner of things. I was doing my best to manage mom’s finances at the time, but since she had no income and wasn’t ever checking her mail, it was a losing battle.
From: Gagne, David
To: [redacted]
Subject: re: Kathleen Gagne
Sent: May 31, 2010 12:43 AM PTHey there, [redacted],
I’m afraid I have some bad news regarding the rent for my mom’s *current* apartment.
Unfortunately I had configured the automatic bill payment from Bank of America to be delivered on the 28th of each month to ensure that it would arrive by the 1st.
That means that by the time you and I discussed canceling the bill payment for my mom’s June rent, it had already been delivered and there was no way to cancel it. It is very likely that — even with the holiday weekend — the check had already been received by her apartment manager.
I am not sure what the impact of this will be on your efforts to get my mom out of her current apartment as soon as possible.
I’m not 100% certain that I transcribed your email address correctly from the voice mail you left me, so please reply to confirm receipt of this message.
Sincerely,
David
She replied later that morning. (Mom would have been annoyed to see her name spelled with a y instead of an ie!)
From: [redacted]
To: Gagne, David
Subject: Re: Kathleen Gagne
Sent: May 31, 2010 10:45 AM ETHi David,
Give me a little while to see what alternative strategy I can develop. It is not the end of the world – it just makes things a little more challenging. What it does give us is time to sell off excess items Kathy doesn’t need. Also it allows us to give a 30 day notice and maybe she can get her rental deposit back. Please look back at her payment records to see if she initially paid first, last and security deposit.What else is on auto-debit? When is her car insurance due to be paid (the date)? Car insurance is designed to be paid a month in advance – so when you don’t pay in the month of June her insurance will expire in July on that date. Please don’t make to car payment in June either. We will also arrange to disconnect Brighthouse cable.
So in June Kathy’s bills will be rent, food, cell phone bill, gasoline and electric.
I will see if the property management office is open today. When I make contact with them I will give you all an update.
[redacted]