“It’s better this way,” Mark continued, his voice taking on that particular tone of clinical reasoning that I recognized from phone calls where he was discussing acquisition strategies or contract negotiations. Except now he was using that tone to discuss his parents—to discuss the dissolution of his mother’s autonomy like it was a business decision that had already been made.
“Dad isn’t going to recover. The doctors made that clear. He’s seventy-three years old, he’s had a massive cardiac event, and the neurological damage from the initial event is significant. Even if he lives, he’s not going to be functional. Which means the legal structure we’ve been discussing is going to move forward. Once we have power of attorney, we can liquidate his assets, the business, the house. Everything.”
My daughter, Emily—twenty-five, supposedly studying art history, supposedly the sensitive one—spoke up with what sounded like hesitation.
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