Willy* filed a cease and desist order on each of his sisters, citing spurious reasons to keep them away from his house (and mom). We also alerted the Office of Aging in McKean County of the sad state of affairs. They sent workers to Willy’s house to visit with mom. The local police accompanied the two Office of Aging workers. The police had been called to Willy’s home before. His neighbors had called them when Willy was being less-than-safe with his firearms a few times in the past.

The sisters reported to the Office of Aging that mom had no change of clothes with her, as both bank employees who remembered seeing Willy and Mom said that she had on grey sweat pants and a grey sweatshirt — the same thing she had on when she was seen a previous time at a prior bank appearance with Willy. They also reported that mom was without her prescription medications.

The Office of Aging workers reported that mom had a closet full of clothes to pick from and that her prescription bottles were prominent on her dresser. They saw no trouble, though they agreed the house was a bit musty smelling and needed to be freshened up. They did not believe that Willy’s actions were hurting mom, and they thought the Office of Aging was being brought into the middle of a family feud.

What the Office of Aging workers did not know was that the room where they met mom, where mom was staying, was her mother’s old room, i.e. Willy’s grandmother. The ‘closet full of clothes’ were grandmother’s clothes. At the conclusion of the entire matter it was learned that the prescription bottles were from many years before – also belonging to grandmother.

Willy was slick enough (sorry – I had to get in one “slick Willy) to recognize that mom’s memory was such that she would not remember the facts. He hoped that her comfort level with her own mother’s own bedroom and own clothing would be enough to cloud the truth in her cloudy mind. It worked.

It was not hard to follow the trail of Willy’s fanciful financial withdraws. A cease and desist letter to Willy would have been in order before Willy had captured mom, though it may not have changed his behaviors. We filed an action against Willy in all three counties where the actions had taken place, reciting his removal as agent on Mom’s power of attorney and also reciting the medical certainty of mom’s incapacity (though a hearing on incapacity had not yet been established). We obviously had Willy’s address, so we were able to serve him.

* The names have been changed to protect the innocent