Marriage of Newlyweds, Ages 96 and 95, Questioned

In some ways, Rebecca Wright doesn't understand all the fuss over her 96-year-old mother's recent marriage. After all, she says, "Anybody who wants to get married must have a little dementia."

The courts, though, and some of Wright's other relatives aren't amused. And the future for newlyweds Edith Hill, 96, and Eddie Harrison, 95, is very much uncertain.

 

The two have been companions for more than a decade after a Hollywood-style meet-cute - they struck up a conversation while standing in line for lottery tickets, with one of the tickets turning into a $2,500 winner. They married earlier this year, with a 95-year-old church elder presiding over the ceremony, no less.

 

"I guess I wanted company," Hill said in an interview, explaining why she married. "I wanted somebody I could help, and they could help me. ... We were both single. My husband was gone. His wife was gone. We became the best of friends."

 

Robin Wright, Hill's granddaughter, said the relationship is more romantic than Hill's explanation allows.

 

"You catch them kissing all the time," she said. "They're actually in love. Really in love. ... I know he's part of the reason she gets up every morning."

 

Legally, though, the wedding has been problematic. Hill has been declared legally incapacitated for several years. A judge said at a hearing last month that he believes Wright - co-guardian over her mother along with Rebecca Wright's sister who opposed the marriage - acted improperly by taking her mother to get married without the court's permission.

 

Cary Cuccinelli, representing the sister who opposed the marriage, Patricia Barber, said at last month's hearing that the wedding occurred without other family members' knowledge, and that it complicated the matter of how to eventually distribute Hill's estate, which includes property on the edge of Old Town Alexandria, worth about $475,000, according to real estate assessments.

 

"Legally, Mr. Harrison now has a right to a portion of Ms. Hill's estate," she told the judge, saying it also complicates decisions over who will care for Hill, and where she will live.

 

While the judge, James Clark, found the marriage to have been improper, he also worried that breaking up the couple could "create a circumstance in Ms. Hill's life that she doesn't deserve."

 

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Marriage of newlyweds, ages 96 and 95, questioned

Georgia Man Pleads Not Guilty to Financially Exploiting a Woman With Dementia Who May or May Not Be His Wife

A Prattville man pleaded not guilty Wednesday to financially exploiting a woman who may or may not be his wife.

Glen Ray Glassmeyer, 75, was indicted in July on a charge of financial exploitation of the elderly, courthouse records show. He entered the plea before Judge Sibley Reynolds in Autauga County Circuit Court. Reynolds set a trial date for the week of Sept. 29.

Glassmeyer allegedly gained access to an elderly woman's finances and misused "several hundred thousand dollars," Assistant District Attorney Jessica Sanders said. He also allegedly bought a house for $150,000 in Elmore County that he put in his name, using the woman's money, she said.

Glassmeyer's attorney, Virginia Lucci, declined to comment about the case. He is free on a bond of $10,000, records at the Autauga Metro Jail show.

The victim in the case suffers from dementia, and Glassmeyer married her three days before he was arrested, Sanders told Reynolds.

"Judge, there is some question about Mr. Glassmeyer's relationship with the victim," she said. "He has told investigators he is her caregiver, but he also said they were together in a dating relationship. There is a petition filed seeking an annulment of the marriage."

The legality of the marriage is in question due to the victim's level of competency at the time of the marriage, prosecutors allege.

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Prattville Man Pleads Not Guilty to Exploitation Charges<.a<