Life is strange. And the more I learn about life and what happens here, the stranger it gets.
[In]February, 2010 I read the Scene article –
Court Ordered Hell – How an errant judge and a controlling sibling stripped Nashville rocker Danny Tate of his money, his livelihood and his legal rights. Initially, I couldn’t digest it; I had to read it two, three, four times. I’m STILL reading it. It tracks like a bad Mickey Spillane novel. It’s a horribly intriguing story, one that still leaves me gobsmacked; come on! How can that really happen? In the perfect and balanced world I’d held in my mind and heart, it couldn’t. But the ugly truth began to dawn: life is not what I thought it was. This kind if thing does happen, is happening, to people all over the country every single day.
I communicated with Kevin Montgomery, the friend who shared the article with me, and expressed my outrage.
“There’s a movement afoot for Danny. You need to be our boots on the ground in TN,” he told me. I was a bit knocked back on my heels. Who, me?! Kevin told me about the efforts to help this guy. He said he’d made me an admin on the Danny Tate FB group site.
“Okay,” I said. What have I gotten into?
“You and Danny need to meet.”
“Okay.” I was willing to meet; I was intensely curious. The concept of what had happened to this man haunted my thoughts, showed up in my dreams. How does this kind of thing happen? Who in their right mind would sanction any of this? The answer is, of course, that no ‘right mind’ would, but the Probate Courts are not about ‘right minds.’ At all.
Danny and I met the next week. He walked into the office, sat down, and began to share his story with me. I was overwhelmed by the things he was telling me. I interrupted often, asking questions. He was very patient with me, saying “That’s a great question, Cece.” He’d answer every question, and return to his story of what had transpired the past two-plus years. We talked for over two hours.
Through the next weeks and months we met and talked often. The more we met, the more the trust built, the more Danny shared with me.
At one point Danny told me, “I’m not the only one.” He shared the story of a woman who was being kept as a slave. She’d had a fall, went into a coma, was sent to rehab, and when she came out she discovered her car, house and belongings were gone, and she had been conserved. She’s now forced to work as a maid, house mother, cook, bookkeeper, and practical nurse … all while the courts have declared her “disabled.” And all without pay.
The woman’s name is Ginger.
I’ve since met and spent some quality time with Ginger. She and Danny have both become good friends of mine. They are so dear to me; I love them each so deeply, I cannot imagine life without them in it. It’s not a love based on pity; it’s a higher love … it’s a joining of tender hearts, and it brings tears to my eyes. It’s hard to believe that their horrific experiences are what brought us together, but I must. Because – on the surface - that in fact is what drew us. But it is not what will hold us together. Our faith, our values, and the moral imperative before us … these are what bind us. And, in spite of it all, the laughter we share.
I cannot know what I’ve discovered about the abuse of Danny and Ginger and untold others and not have it change the direction I’m going. So I will do what I can, as long as I can, to affect positive experiences and ultimate emancipation in the lives of those who have been wrongly conserved. If I am honest with myself, and I am, there is no other calling at this point. It’s as simple, and as complicated, as that.
Full Article and Source:
The Awakening
A New York judge has rebuffed a request to appoint a guardian for a reclusive, 104-year-old heiress to a Montana copper fortune. Her relatives fear her lawyer and accountant are manipulating her for their benefit.
He made people laugh as a writer for such television series as "All in the Family," "Welcome Back Kotter," and "Chico and the Man." He died alone in his house in Hurley, a victim of elderly exploitation by a woman whom George Bloom's family said had convinced them that she was taking care of him.
This is the story of my friend Ginger who is now under a guardianship because of a traumatic brain injury from which she has completely healed. We have tried so hard to get her guardianship terminated, but have been unsuccessful so far, but may be very close.
Life is strange. And the more I learn about life and what happens here, the stranger it gets.
A newly-launched blog, Ginger’s Story, tells of a Nashville woman who after overcoming prolonged and extreme battles with cancer, fell and suffered a traumatic brain injury only to recover and find herself under the control of a court-appointed conservator who now requires Ginger to live in a group home caring for other mental health patients. Though Ginger is reportedly ordered to perform functions comparable to that of other employees, she only receives a $150 per month allowance.
The courtroom door swings open and a well-dressed woman who’s approaching 90 pokes her head inside and glances around. She smiles at a stranger and says, “Good morning,” revealing a German accent. Then she settles into one of the empty benches and waits for her hearing to begin. A handful of friends sit around her, talking quietly, killing time. The judge is running late on this hot August morning. 
An attorney fighting an 89-year-old widow's bid to get some of her money back agreed this week that private communications between a probate judge and select lawyers constituted misconduct. But that, he said, doesn't prove the judge was biased when she ruled that it was “reasonable” for those lawyers and their clients to collect nearly $800,000 from the old lady.
The lawyer for reclusive heiress Huguette Clark has hit back at relatives who want him ousted - saying he asked her to keep family members away from her.
When a General Sessions Court judge from East Tennessee was suspended with pay for numerous ethical violations, prosecutors took the position that the judge was essentially getting a paid vacation. 
Allen County prosecutors added additional charges to the criminal case against local lawyer Daniel E. Serban after investigators said he admitted misappropriating money from an estate account.
Relatives for reclusive 104-year-old heiress Huguette Clark today asked a Manhattan court to appoint an independent guardian for her in light of a criminal investigation into the handling of her $500 million estate by her lawyer and accountant, and a recent story in The Post revealing how her accountant tried to get her to sign new legal documents earlier this week at the hospital where she lives.
Relatives of a reclusive 104-year-old copper heiress yesterday asked a court to bar her lawyer and an accountant -- who are being criminally investigated for their actions -- from managing her $500 million fortune.