This story is being co-published with ProPublica. It’s written by Anjeanette Damon, Byard Duncan and Mollie Simon.

Cory Evans was well-versed within the HomeVestors of America playbook when he arrived at a suburban Los Angeles house on Nov. 4, 2016. His franchise with the “We Purchase Ugly Homes” firm had executed greater than 50 offers within the previous two years. Patriot Holdings would quickly develop into one of many firm’s most profitable franchises by following HomeVestors’ technique of discovering householders in determined conditions, then convincing them to promote rapidly.

The house owner, Corrine Casanova, had purchased the three-bedroom Baldwin Park bungalow together with her husband in 1961 and now owned it outright. After elevating three youngsters there, she was days away from leaving it for an assisted dwelling facility and had known as the quantity on a HomeVestors advert.

“I used to be questioning if I may get an estimate of the worth of my house,” she instructed the girl who answered the telephone. “My husband’s gone, so it’s simply me now.”

Evans, who ran the enterprise with three of his brothers, had developed a status amongst different franchisees within the space as a “onerous nearer.” Casanova’s home was paid off, giving Evans room to go low together with his provide as a result of there wasn’t a mortgage to settle. He calculated the revenue he needed to make and introduced Casanova with a 10-page buy settlement throughout the brief go to to her home.

However Casanova was incapable of participating in a posh negotiation. Though she was as soon as a talented bookkeeper and president of the native ladies’s membership, dementia now carved into her short-term reminiscence: A latest neurological evaluation had discovered the 82-year-old was unable to say what yr it was or identify town she was in. She routinely mistook her grownup son for his uncle.

Dallas-based HomeVestors cautions its franchisees by no means to reap the benefits of sellers who’re unable to know negotiations. However by the point he left that night, Evans had a contract to purchase the home for roughly two-thirds its worth, signed in Casanova’s shaky script.

Weeks handed earlier than Casanova’s household discovered of the sale. However her son, David Casanova, quickly sensed one thing was improper.

“After we moved her, she saved saying, ‘I must name my pal. I must name my pal.’ And I’m like, ‘Which pal, Mother?’” David instructed ProPublica.

Corrine couldn’t bear in mind.

After David discovered of the contract, he defined to Evans that his mom had dementia and tried to cancel the sale. As an alternative of strolling away, Evans dug in, recording a discover on the property’s title that primarily prevented a sale to anybody else, which pressured the Casanova household right into a years-long battle to maintain the house. Alongside the best way, Evans disputed that Casanova confirmed indicators of impairment throughout their interactions.

HomeVestors of America boasts that it helped pioneer the actual property funding trade. Based in 1996 by an actual property dealer, the corporate has developed a system for snapping up drawback properties — and expanded it to almost 1,150 franchises in 48 states.

Not like actual property brokers, home flippers function in a largely unregulated area. Actual property brokers have a fiduciary duty to symbolize a house owner’s finest pursuits in negotiations, which is outlined in state legal guidelines, licensing necessities and an trade code of ethics. However in most states, flippers don’t want a license.

HomeVestors, the self-proclaimed “largest homebuyer in america,” goes to nice lengths to differentiate itself from the hedge funds and YouTube gurus which have taken over giant swaths of the actual property funding market. The corporate says it helps householders out of jams — ugly homes and ugly conditions — bettering lives and communities by taking up properties nobody else would purchase. A part of that mission is a promise to not reap the benefits of anybody who doesn’t perceive the true worth of their house, at the same time as franchisees pursue rock-bottom costs.

Deal with each buyer like they’re your 85-year-old grandma who’s by no means finished an actual property deal, HomeVestors trainers inform franchise homeowners at annual conferences.

However a ProPublica investigation — based mostly on courtroom paperwork, property information, firm coaching supplies and interviews with 48 former franchise homeowners and dozens of house owners who’ve offered to its franchises — discovered HomeVestors franchisees that used deception and focused the aged, infirm and people so near poverty that they feared homelessness can be a consequence of promoting.

One HomeVestors franchisee falsely claimed to a 72-year-old lady affected by a hoarding drawback that metropolis code enforcement officers would take her home, based on courtroom paperwork. An Arizona lady stated in an interview that she was pressured to stay in her truck after attempting unsuccessfully to cancel the sale of her house. One courtroom case documented the plight of an aged man in Florida who was instructed if he offered his apartment he may proceed dwelling there quickly. However he spent his ultimate days alive ready to be evicted when — after the contract was signed — the franchise proprietor knowledgeable him the householders affiliation guidelines didn’t enable it.

“You had been at all times mendacity to them. That’s what we had been skilled,” stated Katie Southard, who owned a franchise in North Carolina. “There was a value that you might pay, however you’d at all times go decrease and inform them that was the value you might pay.”

Even when householders believed they had been being taken benefit of and tried to again out of offers, franchise homeowners sued or filed paperwork to dam a sale to a different purchaser. Some householders fought from hospital beds to maintain their properties. A minimum of three died shortly after signing gross sales contracts; a fourth died after three years of worrying about cash. Their households instructed ProPublica that they’re satisfied the stress of shedding their homes contributed to their family members’ deaths, although all had been sick or infirm.

A HomeVestors spokesperson stated the offers uncovered by ProPublica symbolize a tiny fraction of the corporate’s total transactions, which have totaled greater than 71,400 since 2016. She denied the corporate had focused the aged and pointed to a 96% approval score amongst householders who promote to HomeVestors, which was calculated internally from what the corporate says was “over 500″ buyer evaluations. The corporate had already taken motion in a number of the instances discovered by ProPublica, she added, and is investigating others in gentle of the reporting.

Inside days of receiving questions from ProPublica, HomeVestors prohibited its franchises from recording paperwork to stop householders from canceling gross sales and discouraged them from suing sellers. The practices not solely have an effect on the vendor, the corporate famous, it creates a paper path that reporters and prosecutors can observe to a franchise’s doorstep.

“If you’re doing this on a serial foundation, you’re placing your complete system in danger,” HomeVestors’ normal counsel, Anthony Lowenberg, stated throughout a nationwide name on April 18 to alert franchise homeowners to ProPublica’s upcoming story.

Throughout that decision, a recording of which was obtained by ProPublica, firm management acknowledged the depth and thoroughness of the information group’s investigation and mentioned modifications to make sure “our franchises are doing the correct issues.”

“That is going to make us a greater firm,” HomeVestors CEO David Hicks concluded.

How they discover you

HomeVestors has labored onerous to make sure it’s a family identify, with ubiquitous promoting on billboards, mailers, tv and the web. The corporate has trademarked dozens of pictures and phrases, together with “The Good, the Dangerous and the Ugly” and “Ugly Alternatives,” and continuously goes after imitators in courtroom. Its cartoon caveman, “Ug,” gives a pleasant smile and generally holds out a bag of money implying he’s prepared to assist householders out of “Ugly Conditions.”

HomeVestors deploys Ug strategically. You’ll discover him on advertisements close to houses slammed by hurricanes or charred by wildfires. He’s on mailers blanketing ZIP codes with a excessive focus of house owners who’ve numerous fairness. He’s on postcards despatched to people who public information point out have lately divorced or had a loss of life within the household. To relations attempting to navigate probate, HomeVestors guarantees: “We will help.”

Lately, scores of house owners have complained to native authorities and the Federal Commerce Fee about HomeVestors’ ceaseless overtures — generally claiming that the corporate has ignored formal requests to cease. A Texas resident whose father had lately been murdered instructed ProPublica that HomeVestors wouldn’t take no for a solution. The letters had been so persistent, she stated, that checking her mail turned a traumatic expertise.

A HomeVestors spokesperson stated the corporate addresses every grievance it receives and provides folks to an inside “don’t name” checklist after they ask to not be contacted.

HomeVestors additionally casts its internet on-line, hoping to achieve householders earlier than they speak to an actual property agent or one other investor.

In an interview, a former worker of the advert company employed by HomeVestors recalled discussions about learn how to serve on-line advertisements to folks within the neighborhood of nursing houses and rehabilitation hospitals. The purpose was to catch households who wanted to promote property so Medicaid would pay their nursing house prices. The worker, who requested to not be named as a result of they nonetheless work within the trade, additionally recalled the company’s proprietor bragging in regards to the capability of its digital promoting to seek out an aged one who had damaged a hip. That harm, the worker reported the proprietor saying, is successfully a 60-day countdown to loss of life — and, presumably, a deal.

“If we are able to get in entrance of individuals at that time, that was like a particular method to go,” the previous worker stated. “Yeah, that was unhealthy. My abdomen hurts fascinated by that.”

A spokesperson for the advert company, Imaginuity, stated it might be “out of character” for the proprietor to “disrespect or want hurt” to a shopper’s prospects.

A HomeVestors spokesperson admitted that the corporate had used such ad-targeting expertise however stated it solely did so as soon as, greater than 4 years in the past. A spokesperson for Imaginuity stated the pilot venture didn’t goal rehabilitation facilities.

Nonetheless, HomeVestors’ franchisees are taught methods to seek out folks shifting right into a nursing house.

As much as half of a franchise’s prospects have to be generated by its personal legwork, what HomeVestors refers to as “dig leads.” The corporate’s coaching handbook teaches franchisees to construct relationships with those that work together with folks in troublesome conditions: nursing house directors, probate officers, divorce attorneys. It additionally instructs them to comb neighborhoods for clues of misery — water shutoff notices, police tape, boarded-up home windows, burn scars — and pounce on indicators of desperation. If a household’s belongings are on the curb, for instance, the directive is obvious: “Rapidly pursue the property the place the trash pile signifies eviction.”

In a written assertion, the HomeVestors spokesperson initially denied the corporate targets householders based mostly on such life occasions as a loss of life, divorce or shifting to a nursing facility. After ProPublica pointed to firm promoting paperwork and coaching supplies that educate such techniques, the spokesperson stated they symbolize a small fraction of its advertising funds. The corporate additionally denied focusing on householders based mostly on demographics, together with age. Relatively, the corporate focuses on smaller, older properties that could be in want of restore, the spokesperson stated.

For all of its scrupulous picture administration, the corporate has at instances described its targets in crude phrases. Sure houses in its promoting crosshairs are referred to internally as “honeypots.” And in a 2020 interview, Hicks stated homes focused by his firm scent so unhealthy flippers need to take a bathe after visiting them.

“That cat piss scent, you recognize what that scent is?” he stated with a chuckle. “That’s cash.”

Hicks declined a request for an interview.

‘It wasn’t only one unhealthy actor’

HomeVestors requires that amid the frenzy to seek out determined householders and make a deal, its franchisees not interact in “underhanded strategies that cheapen and threat their companies.”

It teaches them to be clear that they’re a “low cost purchaser,” unable to pay full value, and that the vendor will as an alternative get velocity and comfort. It explicitly forbids them from mendacity. “A franchisee shall not knowingly make any false statements or claims regarding property worth, market circumstances or every other matter regarding actual property to any property proprietor to be able to affect that particular person’s resolution to promote,” the handbook reads.

However proudly owning a HomeVestors franchise is pricey. Along with charges and commissions paid to the corporate, franchisees are required to pay hefty sums — typically tens of 1000’s of {dollars} a month — to help advertising. A crew of company auditors works to make sure no payment is delinquent. Such monetary pressures can result in desperation for offers, which in flip can result in unethical conduct, based on former franchisees.

ProPublica discovered a sample of HomeVestors flippers dealing with allegations they stretched the reality or deceived householders in pursuit of offers.

A girl in Fort Price, Texas, stated in an interview a franchisee instructed her she may legally signal a contract to promote her late husband’s home although she wasn’t on the deed. A person in Broward County, Florida, believed he was signing a doc for a house fairness mortgage that in actuality was a contract to promote his $100,000 home for $37,500, based on a lawsuit he filed however in the end deserted. (HomeVestors’ spokesperson stated the doc was labeled a contract on the market.) A girl in Arizona stated in an interview she was instructed her late mom’s house in a well-liked outside recreation city must be torn down and rebuilt to fetch a good value. After paying her $10,000, the HomeVestors franchise offered it for $55,000 with out making any enhancements.

“It wasn’t only one unhealthy actor,” stated a former California franchise proprietor who spoke anonymously as a result of they feared retribution from HomeVestors. “It turned pervasive within the tradition.”

HomeVestors’ spokesperson stated such conduct isn’t taught or tolerated, and when it’s discovered, “we goal to take swift motion as much as and together with termination of a franchise.” She added that “mendacity is in opposition to our code of ethics and our tradition.” The spokesperson wouldn’t identify which franchises and even what number of have been terminated for violating firm requirements. ProPublica discovered HomeVestors bestowed awards on eight franchise homeowners within the final two years who had engaged in conduct the corporate stated will not be tolerated.

In its coaching manuals and at its annual conferences — boisterous affairs the place franchise homeowners pose for pictures with Ug and one flipper wore a swimsuit printed with $100 payments — HomeVestors teaches the Sandler system. Central to this gross sales technique is constructing rapport with householders to be able to “discover the ache.”

“Ache is at all times a type of motivation,” the coaching handbook reads. “As soon as you discover the Vendor’s ache, you will have a a lot better likelihood of shopping for the home.”

Among the many circumstances that may generate a quick sale: a misplaced job, a looming foreclosures or a toddler in want of surgical procedure. One former franchisee described how he discovered a possible Atlanta vendor’s ache by asking the house owner why he wanted to promote so quick. The reply: His mom was dwelling out her ultimate days in hospice 1,400 miles away.

“It’s not as a result of they need to promote the home,” the previous franchisee stated. “It’s as a result of they need to get to Colorado to see their dying mom.”

‘I’ll by no means promote to you’

About two months after Corrine Casanova accepted Evans’ provide, her son paid for an appraisal.

Corrine’s wasn’t one of many ugly homes mythologized within the firm’s advertisements. The appraiser deemed it “fairly maintained,” noting latest enhancements to the plumbing, bedrooms, sewer line and exterior stucco. The appraisal put the house’s worth at $440,000, $165,000 greater than Evans had supplied.

Through the years, the Casanovas had poured time and vitality into modest enhancements: A driveway, which David and his father had repaved within the Nineteen Eighties, was nonetheless in fine condition; a brand new oak ground had value roughly $7,000 about 13 years in the past. As an adolescent, David labored an after-school job for his father, testing diodes and semiconductors in the home’s storage. His mom, who saved meticulous information of the household’s funds, would lower him firm checks in lieu of an allowance.

“They drilled that into us after we had been little,” David Casanova stated. “If you would like one thing, you’re employed for it, you save and you buy it.”

Whereas David was initially unaware his mom had agreed to promote, he did know she was susceptible and had tried to guard her. David’s father, earlier than he handed away in 2014, warned David that Corrine’s situation was worse than it appeared — that she may faux it “actual good for about 5 minutes” earlier than signs of her dementia would develop into evident. By 2016, her well being had deteriorated to the purpose that she wanted full-time care. She had come to imagine she was an adolescent once more, dwelling within the Fifties, David stated.

HomeVestors’ coaching supplies are unequivocal about learn how to deal with potential sellers whose talents could also be diminished: “A Franchisee shall not buy actual property from any particular person whom the Franchisee is aware of or has motive to suspect is topic to a guardianship or has a psychological capability that’s diminished to the purpose that the particular person doesn’t perceive the worth of the property.”

But information present a sample of disregard for that directive.

In 2020, a 78-year-old man in Atlanta was satisfied to signal a gross sales contract for $97,000, about half what it later offered for. Eight weeks later, a cognitive examination confirmed he was unable to write down a sentence or identify the yr, season, date or month, based on a lawsuit that’s nonetheless pending. (The franchisee instructed ProPublica the person appeared in full command of his colleges, and HomeVestors stated the franchise is now not a part of the corporate.)

That very same yr, a 77-year-old lady in Glendale, Arizona, who may now not handle her funds signed a contract to promote her home for below half what it was value, based on courtroom paperwork. Within the ensuing battle to avoid wasting her home, the girl attended a courtroom listening to remotely from her hospital room. (A HomeVestors spokesperson stated the lawsuit was not initiated by a franchise however somewhat one other investor who purchased the gross sales contract from the franchise. The spokesperson, nonetheless, didn’t touch upon the franchise proprietor’s interactions with the aged house owner. The enterprise is now not a HomeVestors franchise, she stated. The lawsuit was settled in chapter courtroom.)

And in 2021, the lawyer for an aged man in California accused a franchisee of making the most of the person’s “weak point of thoughts as a result of age” to persuade him to promote his home for $175,000 beneath market worth. (A HomeVestors spokesperson stated the corporate was unaware of this case and has since despatched a letter informing the franchisee it could be in violation of its franchise settlement for not disclosing the litigation. The case was settled out of courtroom.)

Martha Swanson, an 83-year-old Georgia lady who had suffered a sequence of small strokes, offered her home to a HomeVestors franchise for $82,111, then spent the final three years of her life agonizing over cash, together with learn how to pay the $3,000-a-month value of her assisted dwelling middle.

“That’s simply not moral,” her daughter, Sherry Nixon, instructed ProPublica.

In Swanson’s case, the franchise engaged in “wholesaling,” flipping the property to a different investor for a better value with out making any enhancements to it. The result’s a piece of fairness going to the flipper as an alternative of the house owner — cash Swanson desperately wanted, Nixon stated. The observe has come below regulatory scrutiny in a number of states.

The franchise proprietor who purchased Swanson’s home stated he “takes nice care” when coping with aged folks and would have let her out of the contract if she had requested.

HomeVestors stated it encourages its franchises to solely rehab one home at a time, whereas wholesaling different properties they purchase. Its spokesperson additionally stated the corporate doesn’t goal aged householders, including that folks over 70 accounted for lower than 20% of its sellers. Practically a 3rd of their purchases are from folks older than 65.

Corrine Casanova lived solely 19 days after signing away her house. Shortly after she died, one in every of her neighbors discovered a handwritten notice from Evans on her doorstep and known as David. The notice was a reminder that escrow was about to shut. When David realized what had occurred, he was enraged.

“I’ll by no means promote to you,” he instructed the corporate. “I’ll by no means allow you to on this home ever once more for what you probably did to my mother.”

Hostage to the deal

Patriot Holdings wasn’t about to stroll away from Casanova’s home.

5 days after David confronted the corporate, the franchise filed a breach of contract lawsuit in opposition to him. In addition they recorded a discover of an possession dispute in opposition to the title known as a lis pendens that makes it almost unimaginable to promote to anybody else.

It’s common for a lot of HomeVestors franchises to file such lawsuits when homeowners attempt to cancel a sale, or to report a lis pendens or comparable paperwork — termed “clouding a title” — as a method to tie an proprietor to a deal. ProPublica discovered greater than 50 franchisees clouding titles or suing for breach of contract in additional than a dozen states. Some franchises have filed solely a handful of lawsuits — although getting an correct depend is troublesome as a result of disputes are sometimes settled confidentially by arbitration. Others, together with some franchises acknowledged by HomeVestors as prime performers, continuously clouded titles.

One Florida franchise, Hello-Land Properties, has filed two dozen breach of contract lawsuits since 2016 and clouded titles on greater than 300 properties by recording notices of a gross sales contract. In a single case, it sued an aged man so incapacitated by sickness he couldn’t go away his home.

Hello-Land Properties has been named HomeVestors’ Nationwide Franchise of the Yr 5 instances. In 2017, Hicks, the HomeVestors CEO, praised Hello-Land’s proprietor as a “loyal, hardworking franchisee who has effectively represented our nationwide model, finest practices and values.”

Cory Evans’ franchise, Patriot Holdings, filed breach of contract lawsuits as lately as 2019. Throughout mediation on one case, the corporate demanded $150,000 to stroll away, based on the house owner’s daughter.

“Why would you maintain folks hostage?” she stated. “That’s insane.”

Some flippers argue it’s a vital observe to guard their investments, noting that as quickly as a contract is signed, a property begins costing them cash, together with inspection and title charges and financing prices.

Actual property specialists, nonetheless, say HomeVestors franchisees’ giant quantity of lawsuits and title notices will not be solely indicative of a predatory enterprise observe, it’s a tacit acknowledgment that sellers typically later study of higher choices.

“Individuals normally try and again out of offers they didn’t perceive,” stated Sarah Bolling Mancini, a employees legal professional on the Nationwide Shopper Legislation Middle. “If your small business mannequin is convincing householders to signal a purchase-and-sale contract based mostly on misrepresentations in regards to the worth of the house,” she stated, it should result in numerous sellers who “need to again out later.”

Charles Tassell, chief working officer of the Nationwide Actual Property Traders Affiliation, added that clouding titles will not be thought of “regular observe” within the trade.

“Is there a reduction for promoting rapidly or doing one thing with money like that? Sure,” he stated. “However whenever you begin clouding titles and such, that begins taking place a complete totally different highway.”

Donald Cameron, proprietor of Hello-Land Properties, denied that clouding titles is a predatory observe and famous he typically helps folks with groceries or electrical payments whereas he tries to purchase their houses. The recorded contract is important to thrust back different traders attempting to purchase the property. He stated he sued the person who had fallen sick as a result of he had superior him $4,000. He additionally stated he adopted HomeVestors’ coverage of involving the person’s grownup son within the discussions. The person died shortly earlier than the courtroom issued a default judgment in Cameron’s favor.

“My workplace has purchased over 2,000 houses since becoming a member of HomeVestors in 2005 and take nice delight in doing issues the correct manner,” he stated.

HomeVestors stated it was unaware franchises had made clouding titles a routine enterprise observe. In response to ProPublica’s reporting, the corporate has prohibited it.

Within the April 18 name recording obtained by ProPublica, HomeVestors’ management admonished franchises that continuously interact in clouding titles. “Clearly, it’s only a unhealthy observe that we’re not comfy with,” stated Maren Kasper, managing director of Bayview Asset Administration, the funding administration agency that purchased HomeVestors in 2022.

Lawmakers have acknowledged that stress and abusive techniques wanting fraud are so frequent in some industries {that a} client wants extra safety. In timeshare gross sales, for instance, some states require an outlined rescission interval that permits a purchaser to again out. A “free-look” interval is constructed into shopping for annuities. Lemon legal guidelines for used vehicles are additionally frequent.

Such protections are largely absent for householders coping with home flippers.

However some states and cities have begun to enact rules. For instance, in Philadelphia, home flippers are required to supply potential sellers with a “invoice of rights” that identifies sources to assist determined householders and describes how they will get a good value.

“I imply, I get 24 hours once I purchase a aircraft ticket, proper?” stated Shamus Curler, government director of the Nationwide Housing Legislation Challenge. “In these sorts of unlicensed conditions, there should be a sure increased degree of safety when there aren’t professionals concerned on the facet of the vendor.”

‘The one ones that aren’t caving in’

Not like lots of the householders cornered by “Ugly Conditions,” David Casanova had money and time to battle the HomeVestors franchise for his mom’s home.

After Patriot Holdings sued to carry the Casanovas to the gross sales contract, David filed a cross-complaint alleging fraud and elder abuse. Evans, he claimed, used “affection, intimidation and coercion” to get Corrine to signal the contract.

For almost three years, Patriot Holdings fought for the home. The corporate didn’t launch its declare till Evans turned the topic of a prison investigation over his dealings with two aged victims in Ventura County.

In August 2020, Evans pleaded responsible to 2 felony counts of tried grand theft of actual property. He obtained a suspended jail sentence, dropped his lawsuits in opposition to each victims and paid restitution. He was prohibited from “any transaction involving the acquisition or sale of actual property” throughout his probation. Finally, in accordance with California legislation, his conviction was expunged.

When Evans was convicted, HomeVestors ought to have terminated its franchise settlement with Patriot Holdings, based on the phrases of the franchise settlement. Patriot Holdings is one in every of HomeVestors’ highest producing franchises. As an alternative, HomeVestors required Cory Evans to be eliminated as an proprietor of the franchise he ran together with his brothers Cody, Chris and Casey Evans and accomplice Scott Mansfield, a spokesperson stated. Nonetheless, inside HomeVestors information present Cory Evans listed alongside his brothers on a 2021 “complete gross sales quantity” award. The HomeVestors spokesperson stated Cory Evans was mistakenly included on the award.

Patriot Holdings now not makes use of the lawyer who initiated the lawsuit in opposition to the Casanova household, based on a HomeVestors spokesperson. The lawyer has represented different franchises and has attended firm conventions.

“We’re not conscious of any complaints because the removing of Cory Evans from the franchise,” the spokesperson stated.

Neither Cory Evans nor his brothers responded to interview requests.

After the battle for Corrine Casanova’s home was over, David offered it for $510,000 — $235,000 greater than Evans had tried to pay for it. David stated he did not one of the repairs Evans had insisted, below oath, had been vital.

Now it’s David’s flip to refuse to stroll away: He’s utilizing proceeds from the sale to proceed his elder abuse lawsuit in opposition to Patriot Holdings. A trial date is ready for June.

“Nonetheless, right now, mainly, they don’t really feel they did something improper,” he stated. “They haven’t any empathy for what they put my mother or her household by for the final six years.

“They thrive on this, and so they push you, push you, push you. And so far as I do know, we’re the one ones that aren’t caving in.”