When Tammy Crowder’s phone rang late one evening in February 2018, her eldest sister, Joy, sounded panicked. Their mother, Cleveland Hager, had slipped and fallen on her side, injuring her leg. Unable to stand, Hager crawled from the hallway to her bedroom in search of a phone to call for help. The effort took hours.
When Crowder and her husband arrived at Hager’s Charlotte home, they found her on the floor, helpless and in pain. Crowder’s husband lifted his mother-in-law in his arms and carried her to their car. She would stay with them for the time being. Suddenly, what-to-do-about-mom became the family’s most pressing concern.
