Death of a Father

What makes life difficult is the fact that people, some people enjoy living it that way.  Not only do some people enjoy the misery of their own lives but they make it their job to attack themselves to others, the good people and try with all the negative energy they can muster to bring them down to their level.

There are people that try to live life and those who do not try.  The ones that don’t even try are usually those who complain that they have nothing.  Most have even less then the whiners do but this is not as they see it.  Those who drag the rest down seem to think they are owed something even when they have it all. They also always think that the good people of the world think as they do.  The little nasty lonely pieces of dribble do not keep an opened mind they are in a world unto themselves.

The following is a story as told to me by a man we will call Gary.  Some would say it was a clear case of murder for greed, others would say, “that’s life” but I would not.

Gary was living half way across the United States when he received a letter.  The letter was about his parents but as children do when they grow up and leave the nest, they live lives of their own.   Gary’s sisters and brother lived across or near their parent’s home.  It is such a shame when some siblings do not grasp the concept of independence.

Gary had three beautiful children and he couldn’t ask for a better more perfect wife.  He started to read the letter sent by his sibling.  The letter was a telling tale of how she works very hard and had to take care of the elderly parents.  Gary decided to give the parents a call to see if everything was all right.   His dad had a stroke and his brother and sister’s advice to his mom was not to tell Gary because it would only upset him.  Gary decided to spend some time with his parents so he moved his wife, children, and pets into a 9 x 12 sun room where they lived for the next year and a half.

Gary and his family took very good care of his parents while living in the small room but the siblings thought that Gary had an agenda, most paranoids do when they think their inheritance was at stake.

Gary cooked for them, planted the garden, did the repairs on the home, and cared for a frail father whose days were numbered and asked for absolutely nothing in return. The siblings had it in their minds that Gary was there to gain the inheritance for himself but if the truth be told, Gary was not a poor man and had done very well for himself and wanted nothing from his elderly parents but to have them live easier in their near end of life.

Gary would literally fight off the children of the siblings.  Gary’s ten year old son would get beaten up by the sister’s twenty five year old children.  Gary’s wife was disabled and would have to take abuse from the brother and the sister also.  Although Gary had loads of obstacles in his way, he knew he was there for a purpose, his parents.

Gary’s dad was frail and half the man he once was.  One night Gary sat down with him and they resolved many issues making peace with old issues.  This made Gary’s father very happy.  The next day, Gary was sitting in the living room with his mom and dad when the door burst opened. It was the brother and sister and their family but something was not right.  It was as if they came with a mission.  Gary’s dad was on lots of medications which made his last days tolerable to say the least. He was in the last stages of Alzheimer’s and the only one he really recognized was Gary and his wife.  The others were just strangers to him. 

Gary’s father was on ten medications one of which was a blood thinner to insure he would not have another stroke. Gary’s father also used to be an alcoholic, a heavy drinker but stopped drinking after his stroke. The first thing Gary’s brother did was pour Dad a tall glass of wine, then another and even another.  According to Gary’s brother, it was his final days and he should be able to have some wine, but three sixteen ounce glasses?

Well Gary tried to hold back the tears while telling me this part, but could not.  It was nearly fifteen minutes after Gary’s father drank the wine; he stroked out and lay in the fetal position in his favorite easy chair.  Gary carried him to his bed where he lay their in a coma.   Gary yelled out for someone to call 911 but no one moved.  Gary walks over to his mother and insisted she call 911 but instead she called the doctor and asked if she should make that call.  The doctor told her to call 911 but the brother and sister both insisted she did not.

Gary sat by his fathers bedside and he saw a sudden movement. He used his cell phone to call 911 and the paramedics arrived soon after.   Gary’s sister said, “Great, they are going to gum up the works.”  Gary’s brother was busy arguing with the paramedics and wanted them to leave, “He wants to die at home.” He kept yelling at them.  They tried to ask the father what he wanted but he was not in sound mind to make that choice.  The paramedics simply left because there was nothing they could do.  One hour later, Gary’s father passed away.

Gary packed up his family to leave soon after the funeral.  The brother had nothing to contribute towards the funeral but acted as if he orchestrated the whole thing when relatives showed up. The sister was not affected at all by the father’s death.  One week to the day, Gary resumed his life with his family leaving that home, the fighting, his mother and all the greed behind him.

With Gary out of the picture, the sister worked on the mother to make her power of attorney of the mother and fathers estate.  The brother was working to get her home and all this while she was still alive but living with cancer. 

Mom passed away a few months after and the brother and sister got everything but Gary was wanting for nothing.  They made the lawyer call Gary asking him if he wanted a copy of the will because he was in it.  Gary said, “I do not care, I am only sad that my parents last years were surrounded by greed.

My sister took a trip to Italy to toss Gary’s fathers ashes.  The trip was worth it for her to get to go to Italy for the sake of her father but Gary’s father was born in New Jersey.   Maybe she wanted his spirit as far away from her as possible, who knows what lurks in the minds of the greedy.

One week later Gary received the will and it read, “And to my son Gary, he gets nothing.”  No doubt the siblings created the will falsifying the document.  His question to me was, “Why would someone go out of their way to tell me I was in a will I didn’t care about only to put something like that in it?”  I thought for a few seconds and simply said, “Greed, paranoia, or pure evil.”  I told him that people like that always think others are as they are.  I also told him that by them doing that, their live will now be more miserable then ever, and yours will be blessed more then it has ever been.”

Thanks for taking out the time to read a story about a good man who had lots to deal with along with the death of his parents.