In July of 2015, I received a call from Texas that my aunt had fallen ill and was admitted to the hospital. I arrived in Texas the day she was released and cared for her over the next two weeks, which would be the beginning of the next eight months.
The first two weeks were spent helping her regain her strength, taking her to follow up doctor appointments and just spending time with her. I knew she had some unfinished business with her house, mail, tax returns and estate planning. The truth is I knew she has a lot of unfinished business and I was just the niece to stand up, take notice and provide her with as much help as I could.
My aunt left this list of items on the back burner for quite some time, so I had to approach her carefully about these issues. I had already been thinking about solutions and the steps needed in order to get this project on the right path. She knew my experience was working with tax accountants and that my organization skills were, well, annoying, but greatly needed. She agreed to allow me to go through her mail and find the information needed to prepare her unfiled tax returns, the ball started rolling and kept on going.
Over the next several months, I was able to assist her with filing her tax returns resulting in refunds to her. Woo-hoo! Who doesn’t like refunds? The next patch of time was spent getting her caught up with her doctor visits. During these weeks, I showed her how easy it was to pay bills online and manage her banking online. My aunt is very much a paper person and she didn’t trust that doing all these tasks online was secure. After the next few months, I worked with her, sometimes daily, sometimes weekly to show her how efficient and easy the Internet is to navigate and to see what’s going on in the world. My aunt is extremely intelligent and efficient at work. It was a gigantic step for her to bring that efficiency home with her and put it to work in her personal life.
My aunt had years and years of mail to sort through and I looked at every, single piece of paper. At the end of each day, I was able to present her with a growing, organized and current filing system. Once we had a system in place, we could move forward with an attorney whose specialty is working with seniors. The items she needed to bring to meetings were right where she could find them. I didn’t set up anything fancy; just simple and logical.
She likes to keep manuals that come with small appliances. Not everyone does, but it was important to her, so I set up an area where all of those manuals are together and easy to reference when needed. I performed many other tasks for my aunt, and it was eliminating the paper chaos that set her free to allow me to do those projects.
So, eight months later, I arrived back home to Los Angeles. My husband was really excited I was home. Then the terror of finding a job set in. I had worked at my previous company for eight years. What to do? I rested over a few months, worked with my husband and went on summer vacation. My husband encouraged me to take the time to find something I really wanted to do.
Over the summer, I told my story to friends and family and it wasn’t really until a family reunion when I shared my story with my sister-in-law that it all made sense. She confirmed that so, so many folks need the service I provided my aunt. She agreed that many people are just embarrassed about their situation. They are reluctant to admit they have let things go for so long and just don’t know where to start or who to turn too.
When we arrived home from that vacation, I told my husband I wanted to start organizing paper documents for businesses and individuals. What the heck, I’m computer savvy, I could turn those paper documents into electronic files and straighten out computer filing mess as well.
That’s how GetCurrent came to be!