I just returned from my favorite aunt's funeral. I have two more "Grand Dame" aunts surviving--both in their 90s. Soon I will be one of the family elders, and it's a strange feeling.
Anyway, I digress...
My cousin (one of the living Grand Dame's daughters) asked me to stop by to visit her mother, who is now bedridden, and I was happy to do so. I've never been to my cousin's house. She was an accountant for her entire work life. She is now 60 (she looks 10 years younger.. perhaps because she doesn't drink), but for the last 5 years she has been caring for her mother, starting from when her mother called her from out of the blue and asked her to fly out to see her at her home in Kansas because she was feeling "strange" and that one phone call precipitated dozens of doctor visits, a trip out East to stay with my cousin, the eventual liquidation and sale of my aunt's home, and the full-time care taking by my cousin.
My cousin is smart, very organized, and psychologically well-adapted. And she has a very small ranch house (frankly in some disrepair--and obviously never updated), an old-fashioned Toshiba TV (no flat screen anywhere), a flip phone, and furniture that looked like a collection of flea market finds. She drives an old car. She has never reported having gone on any travels. Yet it was clean and her mother is extremely well-cared for, by her own daughter.
My take-away was this: I knew my cousin was frugal, but I saw the living proof yesterday. She has no children of her own, but she does have a live-in partner she's been with for probably 30 years). I am assuming she has been socking away money all this time. Then, when her mother needed her, she could be there for her.
It was a pretty inspiring visit. Sometimes you work for FIRE so you can do all kinds of cool stuff. Sometimes FIRE allows you to step in to someone's life in an emergency and make a real difference.