Dallas Prentice was a bit simple. He wasn’t always simple. Old age had diminished his faculties. He and his wife Lillian were both in their mid-80s. There were a few aches and pains that came with age, especially for Lillian.

The problem was that Dallas would take on all the symptoms of Lillian’s health problems and start taking her medicine to counter his “disease”. Lillian would run out of medication before she was meant to. Next time Lillian went to the doctor she asked for placebos. She hid her real medication and left the placebos in the medicine cabinet.

Lillian got more and more ill. Had she perhaps hidden the placebos and put the real medication in the medicine cabinet? There was no telling. Everything looked the same.

She thought she would start taking both – the placebo and the real medication. That meant in the mornings she had to take eighteen pills. And it didn’t solve the problem of Dallas and his psychological illnesses. However, she persisted in her decision for a good month. Things slightly improved. And then the problem was solved. She died.