Grandma Outsmarts Family's Plot to Take Her Home

My parents told Grandma they were taking her to lunch. 3 hours later, a nursing facility called me. Her suitcase was in the lobby, and my parents were gone. I drove 190 miles to get her. The moment she buckled her seatbelt, she stopped me from calling them. “Don’t. I know why they did this.” Then she pulled an envelope from her coat and said, “Drive to the courthouse.”

My grandmother, Lillian Mercer, was 79 years old and still lived alone in the 2-story brick house where she and my grandfather had raised their family.

Grandpa Raymond had di:ed 4 years earlier.