MS had a yard person, a pool person, a house cleaner, a tutor for the girls and yet he still couldn't work the two hours or so needed daily to keep the books straight. This was a boutique practice. Teresa did not see five patients in an hour, she saw 1 or 1.25. Teresa's office processed little by way of insurance claims and most patients paid 100% at the time of service. How much work was involved on the part of MS? And from interviews we hear that he wasn't handling taxes, rental payments, supplement payments and ordering. There may be self absorbed people in this tragedy, but it wasn't Teresa.
You are correct, though, there was quite a bit of manipulation surrounding her but there was nothing she did to deserve the manipulation except, of course, trusting the wrong people.
My sincere and deepest sympathy to you AmazonRain on the loss of your dear friend. Your insight is priceless! I did not personally know TS, however, it's so evident that she made a difference in this world and she will be greatly missed by all who knew her.
I know in a lot of these interviews, they claim that MS was the "stay at home parent" basically taking care of everything, yet we see now how he had all these services (tutor, - thank God for the tutor, btw., pool maintenance, housekeeper, lawn maintenance, etc.) for services he could have completed himself and saved them a lot of money on a yearly basis. The narcissist MS "needed" all these services so he could say..."look at me!..I'm so cool and so busy, I PAY these people to do these things because I'm so BUSY being the 'Office Manager' and taking care of the girls".
The reality we now know is, he couldn't even straighten up his home office, pay bills on time (except life insurance), or even respond to the IRS.
TS taking care of herself is not self absorbing (IMO). I truly believe that she was in the process of also healing her own negative thoughts and perhaps entertaining the thought of divorcing MS. This would be devastating to a narcissist. In this situation, all of his "look how cool I am" would be stripped and he'd have to get a REAL job, have his own place, etc. (like normal people do)
I'm totally with you...the only thing TS did wrong was trusting the wrong people. My heart breaks for her 2 precious daughters, her family, patients and dear friends like you.