You know, when Our Lord called money “that tainted thing” (Luke 16), I’m sure he was right, but not quite so sure that he took on board the inconvenience of having too little of it. At present, I am contemplating just what an insufficiency of funds means, and it’s awful.
It costs €3,000 (£2,500) a month to pay for my mother’s carers, and her life savings have just run out. In two months’ time she’ll have used up her remaining assets – shares left her by my uncle. The Irish government will kindly fund her care in a home, in return for 40 per cent of the value of her house after her death, but she hated the homes she tried last year; she likes being where she is. And I am, to put it mildly, not in a position to help.
