Chapter 7: The Assessment
The care agency arrived at nine the next morning.
A registered nurse and a care coordinator spent two hours measuring doorways, testing the reach of every necessary surface, and listening while I described the exact sequence of an ordinary day in a house that no longer fit my body. They did not offer pity. They offered a written plan: full-time daytime support for the immediate term, a temporary stair-lift evaluation, and a clear recommendation that long-term safety required either a complete first-floor conversion or a move to single-level accessible housing. I authorized the daytime support to begin within forty-eight hours and asked them to coordinate with the attorney on any documentation required for ongoing payment through the emergency account.
By noon the living room already felt less like a place I was trapped inside and more like a place that could be managed until the larger decision was made.
