No Limits Ladies.com

I hear from my buddies all the time “Why bother investing an extra $5 or $10? It won’t make any difference.”

Tell that to the elderly lady I met this weekend.

She came in to get her taxes done for free (a volunteer service) and, although the session ended with me bawling my eyes out, I considered myself lucky to complete her return.

She was as sweet as anything, loving and warm, but the topic she came back to again and again was how long it would take to get her meager refund. I was puzzled, and a little irritated (after her asking 15 times in a half hour), as to why.

And then she told me.

You see she’s dying. She has a tumor pressing against her spine. She doesn’t have years or even months to live. She has days. Her husband of 54 years is in a home, also dying but slower. The complication is that he has Alzheimer’s and she’s worried that if he outlives her, he’ll have no one to speak for him, no one to visit him, no one to love him. He’s past remembering, past even speaking. Without her, he’ll be left in darkness.

So what will this dying woman do with her refund?

The bus service for the handicapped has limited resources. She has access to the service only one day a week. The only other way for her to get to the home is by taxi. $75 is the cost of a round trip taxi ride to see her husband. When I told her she was getting $800 back, she thanked me, saying that if she gets the refund in time, she’d be able to see her husband 10 more times.

10 more times.

Yeah, told you I was bawling (especially as she said this like she had been given the greatest gift ever).

So what would $10 have meant to this dear, sweet woman? $10 invested 54 years ago, on their wedding day, at 4% (8% adjusted for inflation) would be worth $83.

She could see her husband one more time.