Search Articles

Find Attorneys

Selma's Cat: A Lawyer's Intimate Conversations With His Elder Clients

  • August 24th, 2018

 

Local Elder Law Attorneys in Your City

Elder Law Attorney

Firm Name
City, State

Elder Law Attorney

Firm Name
City, State

Elder Law Attorney

Firm Name
City, State

 

Clifton B. Kruse, Jr., Esq. Selma's Cat and Other Things That Matter: A Lawyer's Intimate Conversations With His Elder Clients. Tucson, AZ. National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, 2004.

 

 

$30. Click on book to order.

Perhaps more than any other legal specialty, the field of elder law calls on its practitioners not only to be good attorneys but to be sensitive and compassionate people as well. For many in the field, attorney Clifton B. Kruse, Jr., has set the standard for all that an elder law attorney can and should be. The Colorado Springs practitioner, one of elder law's founding fathers, combines a gentlemanly charm, warmth and caring with one of the sharpest legal minds in the business.

The truth of this will become clear to readers of this collection of poignant essays by Kruse. The essays, Kruse's reflections on encounters with clients culled from his now more than 40 years of practice, convey just how difficult, heartrending, but ultimately rewarding the job of an elder law attorney can be '“ and how it often takes a master humanitarian and emotional tactician like Kruse to meet the challenge.

In one essay, Kruse skillfully succeeds in upsetting the schemes of a reptilian elder exploiter who has designs on the estate of a dying woman. In another, Kruse is visited by a potential client who insists on disposing of her assets in a way that would not be in her own best interests. After gentle probing by Kruse, it becomes clear that the woman is severely depressed. Unable to talk her out of her self-defeating plan, Kruse reluctantly but firmly declines to represent her. In the title story, Kruse saves an 89-year-old woman from eviction, thus also saving the stray cat she feeds.

Kruse is that "old fashioned" attorney who regularly goes the extra mile for his clients '“ visiting them in their homes, reassuringly holding a trembling hand, and even temporarily adopting the toy poodle of a client who dies without having made arrangements. When Kruse tells yet another distraught client, "I'll be right over," readers may find themselves wondering where he found the time in a busy law practice. The reality is that he did and no doubt still does, and his clients were and are the better for it.

A side-benefit to reading Selma's Cat is that it will likely enlarge one's vocabulary. While Kruse is a lucid and plain-spoken writer, there is clearly something of the poet and word lover lurking inside his lawyerly exterior. Every so often he'll toss in a $10 word like "phatic," "quodlibet," or "symbiont" that may have readers reaching for the dictionary (as this one did). Not only this, but the book is a short refresher course in Western literature as well; footnoted quotations from everyone from Catullus to Shakespeare to Keats abound.

This inspiring collection of essays could have been even better in two small ways. First, the text size is quite small -- a particularly surprising choice given the book's subject and potential audience. Second, Selma's Cat could have benefited from the services of a proofreader; there are more than a few spelling errors. But this is minor carping.

By trade, elder law attorneys are professionally committed to making life better for the clients they serve. In Selma's Cat, Clifton Kruse makes it clear that his elderly clients have enriched his own life. As he writes, "How fortunate we are to have the age-wizened elders as clients. We learn from them '“ genuine people, whose lives are shared with us."

Full disclosure: In his acknowledgments, Kruse thanks ElderLawAnswers' founder and president Harry Margolis for his encouragement of Kruse's writing and this book project.


Last Modified: 08/24/2018
Learn the secrets of estate planning from an expert
ADVERTISEMENT
Medicaid 101
What Medicaid Covers

In addition to nursing home care, Medicaid may cover home care and some care in an assisted living facility. Coverage in your state may depend on waivers of federal rules.

READ MORE
How to Qualify for Medicaid

To be eligible for Medicaid long-term care, recipients must have limited incomes and no more than $2,000 (in most states). Special rules apply for the home and other assets.

READ MORE
Medicaid’s Protections for Spouses

Spouses of Medicaid nursing home residents have special protections to keep them from becoming impoverished.

READ MORE
What Medicaid Covers

In addition to nursing home care, Medicaid may cover home care and some care in an assisted living facility. Coverage in your state may depend on waivers of federal rules.

READ MORE
How to Qualify for Medicaid

To be eligible for Medicaid long-term care, recipients must have limited incomes and no more than $2,000 (in most states). Special rules apply for the home and other assets.

READ MORE
Medicaid’s Protections for Spouses

Spouses of Medicaid nursing home residents have special protections to keep them from becoming impoverished.

READ MORE
Medicaid Planning Strategies

Careful planning for potentially devastating long-term care costs can help protect your estate, whether for your spouse or for your children.

READ MORE
Estate Recovery: Can Medicaid Take My House After I’m Gone?

If steps aren't taken to protect the Medicaid recipient's house from the state’s attempts to recover benefits paid, the house may need to be sold.

READ MORE
Help Qualifying and Paying for Medicaid, Or Avoiding Nursing Home Care

There are ways to handle excess income or assets and still qualify for Medicaid long-term care, and programs that deliver care at home rather than in a nursing home.

READ MORE
Are Adult Children Responsible for Their Parents’ Care?

Most states have laws on the books making adult children responsible if their parents can't afford to take care of themselves.

READ MORE
Applying for Medicaid

Applying for Medicaid is a highly technical and complex process, and bad advice can actually make it more difficult to qualify for benefits.

READ MORE
Alternatives to Medicaid

Medicare's coverage of nursing home care is quite limited. For those who can afford it and who can qualify for coverage, long-term care insurance is the best alternative to Medicaid.

READ MORE
ElderLaw 101
Estate Planning

Distinguish the key concepts in estate planning, including the will, the trust, probate, the power of attorney, and how to avoid estate taxes.

READ MORE
Grandchildren

Learn about grandparents’ visitation rights and how to avoid tax and public benefit issues when making gifts to grandchildren.

READ MORE
Guardianship/Conservatorship

Understand when and how a court appoints a guardian or conservator for an adult who becomes incapacitated, and how to avoid guardianship.

READ MORE
Health Care Decisions

We need to plan for the possibility that we will become unable to make our own medical decisions. This may take the form of a health care proxy, a medical directive, a living will, or a combination of these.

READ MORE
Estate Planning

Distinguish the key concepts in estate planning, including the will, the trust, probate, the power of attorney, and how to avoid estate taxes.

READ MORE
Grandchildren

Learn about grandparents’ visitation rights and how to avoid tax and public benefit issues when making gifts to grandchildren.

READ MORE
Guardianship/Conservatorship

Understand when and how a court appoints a guardian or conservator for an adult who becomes incapacitated, and how to avoid guardianship.

READ MORE
Health Care Decisions

We need to plan for the possibility that we will become unable to make our own medical decisions. This may take the form of a health care proxy, a medical directive, a living will, or a combination of these.

READ MORE
Long-Term Care Insurance

Understand the ins and outs of insurance to cover the high cost of nursing home care, including when to buy it, how much to buy, and which spouse should get the coverage.

READ MORE
Medicare

Learn who qualifies for Medicare, what the program covers, all about Medicare Advantage, and how to supplement Medicare’s coverage.

READ MORE
Retirement Planning

We explain the five phases of retirement planning, the difference between a 401(k) and an IRA, types of investments, asset diversification, the required minimum distribution rules, and more.

READ MORE
Senior Living

Find out how to choose a nursing home or assisted living facility, when to fight a discharge, the rights of nursing home residents, all about reverse mortgages, and more.

READ MORE
Social Security

Get a solid grounding in Social Security, including who is eligible, how to apply, spousal benefits, the taxation of benefits, how work affects payments, and SSDI and SSI.

READ MORE
Special Needs Planning

Learn how a special needs trust can preserve assets for a person with disabilities without jeopardizing Medicaid and SSI, and how to plan for when caregivers are gone.

READ MORE
Veterans Benefits

Explore benefits for older veterans, including the VA’s disability pension benefit, aid and attendance, and long-term care coverage for veterans and surviving spouses.

READ MORE