Thursday, May 21, 2009

Against Her Wishes

In 2005, my sisters secretly took my mother to an elder law attorney and obtained a Durable Power of Attorney, Health care proxy, living will with them as agents. They put the family home in a trust and had my mother make her will. They had her transfer all her money to accounts in their names.

On Christmas Eve in 2006, my mother was abducted from the only home she has known for half a century. She was taken away from the people and things she loves under false pretences by my sisters. They told her she was going to get physical therapy to strengthen her weak legs, and to do everything the facility said, otherwise Medicaid would not pay for the therapy.

At first they took her to the hospital and then kept transferring her to different nursing facilities where they were drugging her with so many drugs that she could not lift up her own head and became so weak that she was unable to walk and talk and is now permanently in a wheelchair.

I filed a Writ of Habeas Corpus to get her out of the nursing facility but my sisters filed a guardianship Petition, and instead of bringing her home, the judge appointed a temporary guardian to put her at my sisters house because my sisters said in the petition that I abused my mother (we lived in the same house for 27 years). These allegations are false and at first devastated me. However, I later found that such accusations are a common pattern in guardianships because the goal in such a proceeding is not the person’s best interest, but rather it is about how unscrupulous people get the most money out of the estate. I was never given the opportunity to present any evidence or cross examine my sisters.

Instead, my mother is being still being held incommunicado at my sister’s home in Brooklyn in a wheel chair, with no phone in her room, no money to call a cab or cry out for help. And what can she do about it?

It is more evil and sad than you could ever imagine. It is emotional torture for both me and my mother who told everyone she wants to go home to see her dog, and to die in familiar surroundings. I have not seen or talked to her for almost a year and cry myself to sleep wondering how she must be feeling about the daughters she trusted who have betrayed her. And I wonder if she thinks I let her down.

My sisters filed the guardianship Petition asking to be able to put my mother into a nursing facility for good, and to be able to evict me from the family home and sell it. All of this is against my mother’s verbal and written wishes.

May 2009 ~ Guardianship abuse victims recognized during Elder Abuse Prevention Month

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

From this story and others, it appears that the courts are operating on a totally lawless basis in some of these cases.

It is clear that the feds will have to intervene.

Anonymous said...

The pain and anguish of worrying about your mother is apparant in this story and I am so sorry for that.

How many families have these kind of problems and end up in guardianship - rather than being able to work through the problems?

Who suffers here the most? The mother.

Anonymous said...

How cruel children can be to their own mother.

I am sorry for what you are going through. It's heartbreaking.

Anonymous said...

I am so sorry. This story breaks my heart.

Anonymous said...

See how powerful the accusations are? Sisters say she abused her Mother -- and that's all it takes.

Does the judge bother to find out if the accusations are true?

No.

But the damage is done.

Anonymous said...

Same ole same ole evil story; the courts are not interested in EVIDENCE nor "due process". The elder suffers and sometimes the truly advocating family suffers just as much in a different way. It is excruciating one way or another. The FEDS almost NEVER INTERVENE. No one intervenes cause the judicial god has spoken. Hopefully some more remedies will develop but how long did it take to stop slavery? Hope it is stopped sooner than that.

Anonymous said...

Well said, it is emotional torture.

Everyone wants to go "home". Home represents familiar surroundings and comfot. And this woman is denied that by her daughters?

What's wrong with people?

L. Davis said...

"accusations are a common pattern in guardianships because the goal in such a proceeding is not the person’s best interest, but rather it is about how unscrupulous people get the most money out of the estate. I was never given the opportunity to present any evidence or cross examine..." Ditto.
My father (served US miltary in Korea & decorated) was isolated by his 'guardian' & died alone. I would not want to go out of this life anyway similiar. Its a curse & plague...
I met a lady whom went thru similiar... & she could not even revisit her memories.
Anyone 'attacked' by WFbank should contact me !!!

fed up said...

I am so sorry. And, as an American who once believed in the honest and the fairness of the court system, particuarly the dishonesty and corruption of the guardianship system I am deeply ashamed and offended.

This is how the legal community and their pals treat our own citizens? Our cherished American Veterans?

I think we need to start to clean up our country, get rid of the scum and the muck and load the filth into barges and then sink the barges.

Let the ocean sharks eat the land sharks and their pals in the guardianship scheme.

Anonymous said...

My mother's story is exactly the same. She was abused by her daughter for five years. I was in court the entire time, but was never able to get her away from the abuse.