Situation: My FIL died last April. My MIL is 87, doesn't drive, doesn't want to move closer, currently lives in Atlantic City, NJ. We live in an NJ suburb of Philadelphia, and it's 63 miles of fairly heavy traffic for us to get to AC.
The problem is that most of her friends and social activities are here in our town, so she's constantly looking for rides to and from AC. My wife has been doing that at least every two weeks, sometimes once a week, since April.
I stayed out of it until now, but this week MIL wants someone to drive to AC on Sunday morning, bring her here for some lunch date, and then drive her back to AC. That's about five hours in the car, plus of course the $22 in gas and tolls for each round trip.
She can't really deal with the train (she's afraid she'll trip and fall, which I admit is a possibility). My suggestion to my wife is that she use Uber, which would cost around $45 - $50 each way. If she did that two or three times a month, it would be no big deal money wise. She has roughly $3000/month to spend after expenses.
My wife says she won't want to do that because she doesn't trust strangers. I say she should either learn to trust strangers or admit that she needs to move closer.
I know I'm being selfish here too. I detest that drive to AC, plus I hate blowing an afternoon or evening sitting in a car basically going nowhere.
What do you guys think? Uber? Keep doing taxi duty? Any other options?