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r MUSINGS FROM LONG HILLs

B Y  R ICHARD  M URPHY 

T HE  J OY OF  P ARANOIA 

One of the hardest struggles that can befall a family 

is for grandma or grandpa to need a nursing home, and

refuse to go. Unfortunately, as the population ages, this

is happening more and more frequently 

 As a son, daughter or spouse, there’s no easy way to

deal with a loved one’s anger and resentment at beingtold he must enter a nursing home. There’s no easy way 

to deal with the legal ramifications either.

The Legislature has provided a process through

 which a person can be forced into a nursing home

against their will. For obvious and good reasons, it pro-

 vides for many safeguards to insure no one is forced

into a nursing home without it being absolutely neces-

sary.

Before filing a petition to become a guardian for an

elderly parent or relative, you should first consult a doc-

tor and, ideally, get your parent to agree to an examina-tion to determine their fitness.

If they won’t agree, you will have to get the court to

order an exam.

Either way, the doctor will have to complete a

lengthy and detailed form. You will too. Once you have

 your petition and the doctor’s certification, you have

30 days from the exam to go to court and get a judge to

grant the petition.

The process is heart-rending and humiliating. Avoid

it if at all possible. Unfortunately, sometimes there is

no other way to do what’s has to be done for someone

 you love.

L EGAL B RIEF 

GUARDIANSHIP

M O N T H L Y  L  E G A L  A  D V I C E

F O R R E A D E R S O FT H E S T U R B R I D G E T I M E S M A G A Z I N E

STURBRIDGE ATTORNEY 

ROBERTA.GEORGE, ESQ.

Life is good. The bad old days, not so long ago,

meant grinding work and short lives. In the third

decade of the Twentieth Century, the son of a US pres-

ident suffered an infection. Afforded the finest med-

ical care in the nation, he quickly succumbed. Today,

the poorest child in the land would be cured in short

order thanks to the greatest Scotsman who ever lived.

 Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin by accident in

a dish of mold and saved millions including moi.

 When I was a boy, a long distance phone call wasrare and expensive. This summer I will be able to see

and talk with my son, in China, for nothing more than

a broadband fee that I would pay anyway.

Can it get any better? Sure can. Raymond Kurzweil

says that with some breakthroughs that are coming and

some that are already here, we humans can live forever.

I know what you’re thinking. No, Kurzweil is not some

nut. He is a serious scientist who has many inventions

and advances under his belt.

 What could possibly go wrong? A lot.

Now, I’m not talking about the efforts of bankers

and politicians to wreck the economy. That is big and

could happen. I’m just hopeful that we can muddle

through anything our rulers throw at us. After all,

  we’ve survived the Registry of Motor Vehicles and

that’s been around forever.

No, I’m talking about one of my favorite subjects,

The End of the World. Well, at least the end of 

Massachusetts, not to mention a lot of the rest of the

country.

  As a child, I loved stories of impending doom. I

had a little no power radio with an earphone that I lis-

tened to when I was supposed to be sleeping. It only 

got a couple of stations, but they would have late night

stories about UFOs and cosmic cataclysm. The shear

joy of having the hair on the back of your neck stand

on end is indescribable.

Then there was the rise of psychics. ESP started

becoming big around the late 50s early 60s. To me,

the most interesting was Charles Criswell or “The

 Amazing Criswell.” He would become big on national

TV. Jack Parr, Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, he wason all the shows. What he said was outrageous, but it

 was as much his personality that made it work. He

dressed formally, had grey locks perfectly styled, and

spoke in stentorian tones. If he had said, “I am the

great and powerful Oz,” you might have believed him.

 Amongst his predictions were that Denver would be

destroyed from outer space by a mysterious force. a

meteor would destroy London. Other gruesome pre-

dictions were also made, as well as, the end of the

 world. That was one a lot of people were making. As

time moved closer to the new millennium, more and

more people started predicting the end.

By that time, I had gotten over my fascination with

the occult. I had forgotten it such that when the cen-

tury ended, I wasn’t even shocked we were all still liv-

ing. Even the hi tech scare of y2k turned out a fizzle.

So what got my paranoia juices f lowing again?

Iceland. That island out in the North Atlantic has

been in the news lately. First, it’s economy collapsed.

Not a problem when your in the middle of an ocean

that abounds with fish. When the Krona went south,

Continued on page 26

18 T HE C HRONICLE OF  S TURBRIDGE C OUNTRY  L IVING THE STURBRIDGE TIMESMAGAZINE

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26 T HE C HRONICLE OF  S TURBRIDGE C OUNTRY  L IVING THE STURBRIDGE TIMESMAGAZINE

The joy of paranoia

COLD BEER 

FINE WINE

FULL LIQUOR 

Luncheon Special:

Pizza by the Sliceuntil 4 pm

500 Main Street Sturbridge

508-347-1740

Hours Kitchen Bar  

Monday Closed Closed

Tuesday 11:30-9pm 11:30-10pmWednesday 11:30-9pm 11:30-10pmThursday 11:30-9pm 11:30-10pm

Friday 11:30-10pm 11:30-12amSaturday 11:30-10pm 11:30-12am

Sunday 11:30-9pm 11:30-9pm

the Icelanders found something to export. Volcanic

ash. A volcano with an unpronounceable name erupted

and stopped flights all over Europe. If you are think-

ing this will blow over, think again. The last time

Icelandic volcanoes went ballistic, something did blow 

over, the French Monarchy. The eruption persisted

and caused crop failures and famine and, in France,

the Revolution. Natural disaster is more powerful

than the spooky occult.

 Yeah, but that is Europe and what do we care. It

can’t happen here. Actually, it can and it’s going to.The Yellowstone Caldera is a volcano that blew once

before and will again.

  According to the Discovery Channel, “A modern

full-force Yellowstone eruption could kill millions,

directly and indirectly, and would make every volcano

in recorded human history look minor by compari-

son.” A past eruption of the Toba Volcano in

Indonesia 74,000 years ago almost caused human

extinction. Yellowstone would be much more power-

ful.

If that were not enough, to the east of us is anoth-

er life changing, well life ending possibility. It’s anoth-

er volcano, Cumbre Vieja in the Canary Islands. The

 volcano itself isn’t much, but if it erupts, part of it, the

size of Rhode Island, will fall into the sea. That means

a mega tsunami whose wave reaches Boston in seven

hours. What does that mean for us? Well either I

have beach front on the Long Hill National Seashore,

or I get into the Guinness Book of World Records for

treading water before I succumb, or it peters out

before Framingham. The Ocean State will really be

the Ocean State. According to an English scientist,

Dr Simon Day, “It's not a question of ‘if’ Cumbre

 Vieja collapses, it's simply a question of "when.”

Unfortunately, for scaremongers like me, the

“when” for both is indeterminate. Yeah, worst cast

next week, but maybe not in our lifetime. Pity. When

life again turns primitive, I was looking forward to

answering the question, “Did the people living in the

Dark Ages know they were living in the dark ages?”

Continued from page 16

If the big one hits,

it’s looking like

the Ocean State

could really become

theOcean State.