This Makes Me Sick To My Stomach

So, Stan’s two daughters came up for the memorial. Apparently, neither of them had been very close to him. He’d been up here in Alaska for over 25 years, but they had only come to visit him once each. Neither of them ever sent a Birthday Card or a Christmas greeting.

Anyway, a week prior to their arrival for the memorial they phoned Mother, the realtor, the lawyers, and the neighbors so often that they all stopped answering their phones. They also called each of us, asking for money and rides and a place to stay. They ended up staying at the farm and driving his truck while they were here. I don’t know who picked them up at the airport, or who took them back either.

While they were here they continued making phone calls all over the place, their main objection being to cut my family out of the entire process as much as possible. They thru accusations out left and right about us all, and tried to get Mother taken off as executor of Stan’s will. They even managed to “steal” Mother’s lawyer out from under her, since he couldn’t represent both at the same time.

Worse yet, they managed to pack up and steal well over 4000 pounds of stuff from the farm. We are only just now realizing what’s been taken: antique furniture that Mother bought in Mexico when my brother was born almost 50 years ago, shooting medals that Mother had won in her Colorado days, a full size quilt that my Great Aunt Kathryn made as she lay dying from cancer, tools from the shed out back, 2 lawn mowers, the wood stove that was in the barn (which didn't even work, but left a big hole in the roof in the taking of it), gun cabinets belonging to other people. The list goes on…

One of the more shocking things taken: they very carefully went thru the rolodex and took hundreds of address cards, some of which had account numbers and personal information, all gathered by Mother and Stan over 20+ years. They left all the blank cards, which meant they very carefully looked at each one to make sure they got them all – then they tried to hide the rolodex behind a built in bookshelf.

They even vandalized the farm before leaving! There are broken windows and the place is just trashed.

Just the other day an obituary showed up in the paper: written by them, not by us. They very skillfully cut out a whole 25 year period in his life by not even mentioning Mother, any of us kids, or even the grandchildren (Stan was the only Grandfather most of them had ever known).

My brother is livid. He may very well go down to Oregon and physically get all that stuff back - and break some kneecaps in the process. I do know he is threatening to press charges. I support him 100% and will do anything and everything I can to help him – not to get the stuff back, but to … I don’t know, get even? Make them pay for what they’ve done to my family? Try to make them see just how awful they are?

The will has a clause in it that states if anybody contests the will, they get $1.00 and that's final. In my mind, they both more than contested the will. I would love to see mother enforce that one on them both: they deserve it for what they’ve done.