A sobering day at TaxAide.

I have been helping people with their federal taxes for four years now and today was a particularly hard day for me. One of my clients was a woman whose taxes I've done two or three times before. In the past she was in the company of her husband, but today she was alone. Her husband passed away two weeks ago due to cancer. He was treated by a local doctor and would not consider a transfer to Moffitt Cancer Center, one of the best cancer centers in the country. She told me that he wanted her to make an appointment with us to get the taxes done as he apparently knew his time was short.

This particular client is a very sweet lady who has all her paper work in order. She highlights the pertinent information in yellow so it's easy to find. There is nothing complicated about their return and they have been among the most pleasant people I deal with. I found it difficult to ask the questions I had to in order to get the return filed. All our returns are quality checked by another person, and I got Eileen to to the review because I felt she would be the most compassionate. Eileen did a thorough check of the return then took considerable time counseling the lady on the tax situation she will fall into in two years. We finished all the paper work and the lady left. Eileen went into the staff lounge, coming out a few minutes later with red eyes.

I'm grateful that the client was able to hold herself together so well, though there were times when I could see her close to tears. I'm happy to be working with people like Eileen who will go above ad beyond to help someone.

This could be the story of any of us at our age and I hope that we're all doing our best to be the best we can be while enjoying life to the fullest. Life is short.

Later.