Eight years ago my mother went into a nursing home after it became 
obvious that she could not manage on her own. When I began working on 
her house to get it realtor ready, I got calls almost every morning from 
one collection agency or another. Over a 5-year period at least, she had 
begun using credit cards to make ends meet and racked up about $8000 in 
debt. My first reaction was consternation since I had inherited my 
father’s hatred for owing money. My first impulse was to try to figure 
out a way to pay off the debt but an attorney friend told me that I was 
not really liable. Despite that knowledge, I was reluctant to tell the 
collection agencies that I was her son and crafted a new persona for the 
phone calls. Using an upstate NY drawl, I became “Lenny”, the handyman 
hired to work on the house who advised that Missus Proyect was in the 
nursing home doin’ poorly, on Medicaid, and poorer than a church mouse.

full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2012/04/29/debt/
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