Mummy in the foothills

My Mom is coming to the end of her multiple trip to us each year, she used to come out at least once and usually twice, for few weeks or a couple months. She's 74 this year and says those long flights are starting to get to be too much and she loves to travel. This October she's doing a final tour group visit and we'll meet up in San Francisco.
She is finding it harder to find the travel insurance now too.
Just so happens this all coincides with us moving back to UK, part of the reason is her and the grown kids moving back has spurred us on too.
I'd wait and see how she feels, she may want to stay where she knows, with friends around. Maybe it's time for you to do the multiple trips back each year, just to keep an eye on her.

scrubbedexpat099

Annual Travel Insurance is designed for multiple trips in one year, not one trip lasting a year. They vary as to the maximum length of time per trip.

There are some policies for extended trip, Backpackers etc. When I last looked for a reason that escaped me, they had a maximum age of 50.

The last time my Mother came, she was in her late 70's, the 2 week travel insurance was similar to the airline ticket in cost.

LexieLou

Thank you so much Sugarmooma, I appreciate your kind words. I have spoken to mum and as she is fit (Thank God at the moment) she will come out for Christmas and 3 weeks every so often, but stay in the UK. She insisits we stay here for the sake of her grandson who is doing really well in school and that is one of HER main concerns. Yes we are all still grieving after all, they were married for 59 years and never had a day apart till the final week.

Re health insurance cover, this cover was advised by the local GP and it is excellant. She has meds for High blood pressure but it is stable and this was noted in her health insurance history.

Once again thank you. Think I just panicked about her being the other side of the pond. But she can have the best of both worlds and visit for holidays. She still drives in the UK which she would not be able to do here.....

davenay67

LL,

Sorry to hear your sad news. Your story has a number of similarities.

My dad passed away just this very Memorial Day, and my Mum is now 80 years old herself. She is very active and capable, but I know she is going to struggle for a while. She commented only yesterday how "quiet the house is".

She has no desire to live here in the US, not that she could having read all the posts above. She too is adamant about us staying here and keeping the family life as normal.

It is good to hear that you Mum intends to visit, and if you can reciprocate with some visits of your own I'm sure that will help.

Dave.

Sally Redux

That sounds like a good plan. All the best.

penguinsix

I'm sorry to hear about this situation, and unfortunately I would have to agree with what most others have been saying. Besides the visa issues you have essentially insurmountable health insurance issues. After age 75 it becomes nearly impossible for anyone to purchase health insurance without huge premiums or wide gaps in what is or is not covered. In fact even those over 65 have a very tough time entering the insurance marketplace unless they are covered by the governments Medicare program.

One thing I thought I'd mention, and I know it might sound a bit silly, is the power of 'Skype'. Not the traditional phone or video chat, where you both sit down and talk about your day, etc. What we have found is that opening a 'window' into our house has been an amazing relief for our parents on the other side. Basically a security camera where our parents can watch their grandchildren's life unfold before them.

We have a dedicated computer in our living room with a web camera attached. It has a private Skype address and is configured to answer automatically with video only to a select list of users (our parents). With this they 'tune in' to our living room sometimes for hours a day, just watching and occasionally chatting with the children. They watch them eat breakfast, play with friends, take a nap, etc. They even have talked to them a few times--"Eat your vegetables" came out of the speakers once like the voice of God scaring my kids into eating. It's basically like there is a window in our house and on the other side is grandma.

It's wasn't that difficult to set up. I bought my mother-in-law an iPad just so she could get online and check things out (a computer was too complicated for her). We have been shocked by the success. Both of our parents feel much closer to their grandchildren now, being able to just look in whenever they wanted and see the 'day-to-day' kind of stuff they are missing. When they do chat it's not 'what did you do today' but things like 'did you like the toy your were playing with this afternoon with your friend?' It has been a very successful experiment.

I know, not a substitute, but as you look at some temporary measures while you sort out a longer term solution you might want to consider something like this.

Good luck with the difficult road ahead.

scrubbedexpat099

A doctor who is also qualified to advise on Travel Insurance.

That is unusual.