I want to tell you about Shirley, she's in one of those #Massachusetts "nursing homes" tonight because, ultimately, I failed her. We all did.

This is a #WeAreEssential story about a garment worker, a devoted friend, a VHS pirate... https://twitter.com/mattbc/status/1248512289336111105

Shirley has Alzheimer's. That's why, tonight, she's in a Massachusetts nursing home, sharing a room with my grandmother. They grew up together, side-by-side tenement buildings in a poor Massachusetts city.

When Shirley's mother died, she moved in with my grandmother & grandfather.

If they were millennials? I have no doubt that they'd describe themselves as platonic life partners.

Shirley lived with my grandmother & grandfather for as long as I can remember.

When I was in middle school, I basically won the lottery – I got a scholarship to the fancy prep school a long distance away.

Shirley would drive to the bus-stop in town, wait for my bus, and then drive me back to my grandparents' house. Some afternoons we'd play video games together–Nintendo games mostly

She had video game consoles. She had a bunch of game titles. She subscribed to the video game magazines. She gamed. She really, really enjoyed it.

It was so much fun playing mario with her.

She also really likes movies. There was an independent video store on her way home. She'd stop most days and pick up a few movies. She quickly became a regular.

After she retired from her job in the mill, she worked at the video rental place part time. She loved it.

She wasn't working on the floor of a mill. She was working with movies, these VHS tapes she loved. She was respected. She was so happy.

And she was a motherfucking Pirate. She had a hardware box that allowed her to bypass the copy-protection on VHS tapes (aka MacroVision)

This sweet, little (she's maybe 4'5), old lady was running a VHS piracy operation. At first it was just the rentals. She'd rent & copy. And there were a few different circles of folks she'd supply. She'd bring the tapes to the weekly card game in a plastic grocery bag.

Do you know what a screener is? They were like ARCs. The movie companies would send tapes out to the video rental stores so the store could see if they wanted to purchase any of the tapes to rent out. Once Shirley was a regular at the rental place? Screeners.

This little old lady was copying VHS tapes, for her friends. No sales, no profit. Just plastic shopping bags of VHS tapes to bring some joy to her friends.

They're all dead now.

I knew something was wrong when I found her behind her TV/VCR/VCR/XBOX rig one day, the wires a complete mess. And she couldn't fix it.

Without her, I don't know how I would've gone to fancy prep school–just as a matter of logistics. Without prep school, I wouldn't have met @cosetthetable, I wouldn't have gone to the higher ed institutions I went to

I would not have gotten out.

I. Would. Not. Have. Gotten. Out.

For the last decade, I have protected Shirley to the best of my ability.

In part, because of her, I'm a lawyer. I'm her lawyer. And one of the practice areas I specialize in, one of the things I'm exceptionally good at navigating, is healthcare.

If anyone deserved a retirement? It was Shirley.

After she drove me to the bus (that took me, the scholarship kid, to the fancy prep school that opened the door to college) she went to a textile mill where she did physically demanding piecemeal work for pennies.

And then she'd pick me up from the bus stop – this kid the world would say she's not related to – and bring me back home so I could have dinner. And do homework. And play video games.

I tried my hardest to keep Shirley and my grandmother in their own home. But, eventually, I just hit a wall because the services just didn't exist.

It got truly absurd at points...like with this repurposed card table...

In the U.S. there's a thing called "Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly" (PACE) for folks 55+ y/o who need enough help to qualify for a nursing home. The idea is that PACE can keep people at home, out of institutions. But PACE exists in only 31 states

And even in those 31 states, it's still usually a zip code lottery. For example, my people didn't live in a county covered by PACE – for older, disabled people in that county? a nursing home is usually the only option.

I've said, on here, that I wouldn't allow Shirley to be abandoned.

I lied. Shirley has been abandoned. Every single elder in a nursing home in Massachusetts has been abandoned. https://twitter.com/mattbc/status/1242188674315534336?s=20

I did the best I could, before this I was mostly successful.
It was hard. It was hard to keep them at home as long as I managed to. It was hard to arrange for them to be in the same facility. It was hard to arrange for them to share a room.

She doesn't know that over the last decade, if she were paying market rate, she'd be looking at a six figure invoice.

She doesn't know that the kindness she showed an abused child many years ago, a child she was unrelated to, earned her the services of a specialist lawyer...

And yet, for all my skills & knowledge, my dear, dear friend – who was the nicest and kindest to me of any of the adults in my life for many, many years – is lying in a facility tonight, basically abandoned by us all.

I will never forgive this.

Ever.

Because our leaders are either incompetent or murderous, it may be too late for Shirley. If COVID is already in the facility? The die is cast.

But if Congress would do their goddamn jobs and immediately fund HCBS & nationalize the PPE supply chain, we could save people.