At 70 They Tried to Put Me Away — I Chose the Philippines

👉 https://ruthinthephilippines.com 📖 MY BOOK — "Still Somebody" ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Seven true stories of women written off at home — who started over in the Philippines. Plus the honest $1,150-a-month budget behind it. $27 · instant PDF. At seventy, a judge who had never once laid eyes on me signed a piece of paper saying I was not in my right mind, and just like that my two grown kids got the say over my money and my life. 00:00 — A Judge Who Never Met Me Signed It 02:20 — While My Name Was Still on the Account 02:41 — A Postcard I Kept for Eleven Years 04:16 — Proving Them Right, First Night 06:28 — You Can't Even Manage a Can of Fish 09:46 — Stamped Withdrawn 11:18 — Twenty-One Seconds 13:56 — Tempura on the Boulevard 15:40 — Four Cart Ladies and My Nineteen Dollars 20:05 — Ma'am, You Know How to Sort? 23:23 — The Consultant 24:37 — The Numbers: $300 and Four-Dollar Pills 28:31 — Lola, I Did Not See You Go for Your Walk 32:41 — Sit Here, Lola My name's Diane. Thirty-eight years a librarian in a little town called Marshalltown, out in Iowa — thirty-eight years of keeping things in order, catalogs and card drawers and my own good head. That was the family joke. Diane always had it straight. Then last winter I slipped on the ice going out to the mailbox and cracked my wrist. And a couple of times around then I got flustered. Left the burner on one afternoon. Called my son by his father's name twice in one week. Little things. My two kids took those little things to a lawyer, and the lawyer took them to a court, and a judge I never met, who never once spoke to me, signed an order that said Diane is no longer competent to manage her own affairs. I found out from a letter. I could have fought it. Hired my own lawyer, spent whatever was left of my life and my money proving to a room full of strangers that I still knew my own name. But I've spent enough of my years in rooms where people talk about you like you've already left. So before the guardianship paperwork closed the last door, I went down to the bank while my name was still on the account, took out what was mine, and bought a one-way ticket to a town called Dumaguete. There's a word we use in a library. Withdrawn. It's what you stamp on a book that's too far gone, and then you take it right out of the catalog, and as far as the whole system's concerned, it never existed. This is where my story really begins. Footage Attribution: Portions of the video footage used in this production are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. The original footage has been edited, color graded, trimmed, or combined with additional footage, and paired with original narration and storytelling to create a new transformative work. Credit for all original creators is provided below in accordance with the CC BY license. Video Credit: "Walking the 2nd Most Densely Populated District in Manila Philippines [4K HDR]" by Krypto Trekker Source:    • Walking the 2nd Most Densely Populated Dis...   Video Credit: "Exploring Masville Parañaque Metro Manila Philippines [4K HDR]" by Krypto Trekker Source:    • Exploring Masville Parañaque Metro Manila ...   Video Credit: "Watch This Before Visiting Manila Philippines [4K WALK]" by Krypto Trekker Source:    • Watch This Before Visiting Manila Philippi...   Video Credit: "SUPER HEAVY RAIN HITS MANILA CITY-Afternoon walk in tondo Manila [4k]" by JOHN WALK TOUR Source:    • SUPER HEAVY RAIN HITS MANILA CITY-Afternoo...   Channels: Krypto Trekker —    / @kryptotrekker   | JOHN WALK TOUR —    / @jwtrealninja   Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY). — #RetireInThePhilippines #RetireAbroad #RetirementPlanning #CostOfLivingPhilippines #ExpatLife #RetireOverseas #Dumaguete #Guardianship #RetiredLibrarian #StillSomebody retire in the philippines, retire abroad, retire overseas, retirement, retirement planning, cost of living in the philippines, retire on social security, retire on a budget, american retiree philippines, moving to the philippines, living in the philippines, dumaguete, dumaguete city philippines, rizal boulevard, silliman university, negros oriental, visayas, retired librarian, guardianship, conservatorship, declared incompetent, elder guardianship abuse, memory care, adult children control money, fixed income, pension, retire at 70, starting over at 70, second chance, another life abroad, philippines cost of living 2026, retire in asia, southeast asia retirement, filipino hospitality, filipino kindness, healthcare in the philippines, retire cheap, best places to retire abroad, senior expat, expat life, retire with dignity, how to retire abroad