12/06/2026
Andrina has shared this story to encourage everyone in Highland to put a Power of Attorney in place:
My mother-in-law, Marjory Robb, affectionately known by all of us as Granny, was living independently at home but in 2016, when she was 89yrs old, I started to notice there were changes. I would go in with her shopping regularly and notice she was becoming more and more frail.
Then she started accusing me of stealing. It started with her saying I was stealing her embroidered pillow cases but soon it escalated to her saying I was not giving her all her pension. I took my eldest son, who as her closest blood relative was her next of kin, with me so he could witness it.
It continued like that for a few months then she would start saying that delivery drivers were hiding in the house. We still didnโt think we needed to do anything. The Red Cross were attending regularly, she was eating and she looked cared for. We just thought she was confused.
In 2017 she had a fall and broke her leg very badly. It was the nursing staff who asked if we had a health Power of Attorney in place. Thatโs when we realised that next of kin wasnโt going to be enough.
She was in hospital for a couple of months as a delayed discharge โ we could see her deteriorating and started accusing nursing staff of stealing from her.
We got in touch with Grannyโs solicitor; her will had recently been updated so she had met Granny and knew the family. She was so lovely but Granny got three capability assessments and failed them all. At that point we were told we needed to go down the Guardianship route.
The solicitor did that on our behalf as it to go through the sheriff court, there are so many forms to fill in and I, along with my eldest son had to be assessed by social work to ensure we were fit to be a guardian. The guardianship covered both financial and health but it was very intense, and it cost over ยฃ3,000.
As intense and costly as it was I was happy to do it as I wanted to protect Granny. If a Power of Attorney had been in place I know she would have appointed us. We would have had the authority, with her blessing, to make health and financial decisions for her.
Guardianship was the route we had to take as she did not have capacity to make those decisions anymore. It meant that every time we used her money for her it had to go into the annual accounts. Anything over ยฃ20 had to be accounted for up until she died, the accounts are submitted annually and have to be approved. Having Power of Attorney in place would have prevented all that extra work from happening . What we wanted to do was spend time with her, not spend it doing admin. We spent so much time obtaining guardianship we feel we lost time with her.
I would encourage everyone to have a Power of Attorney in place. If youโre getting your will done, get the Power of Attorney at the same time. Anyone can apply to be your guardian, but with Power of Attorney it is your choice.
For more info, visit nhshighland.scot.nhs.uk/poa.
