Blue Danube Blog: Traveling In and Out of Heaven
This is the story of a profound love between a brother and sister; the anguish of an unbearable illness; the love and compassion from family and friends; and the shocking duplicity of a daughter who was determined to manipulate her “next-of- kin” status to stage-manage her father’s final days, since the Trust Fund she would inherit seemingly mattered more to her than any chance of her father’s survival. And it didn’t end there. Michael and I were astounded by what came next: a fabricated Petition to remove Michael as Trustee and me as Executor of Allan’s Estate. The Petition was driven by an ex-wife’s bitterness and a narcissistic daughter’s perjury and contrived vengeance. The real purpose of the Petition was for Joan to gain control of the Trust Fund: to oppose her father’s instructions regarding payouts; and to contest Allan’s written stipulation to reimburse me for $15,000 (a very small portion of the Fund), which covered half of the expenses I incurred on behalf of our mother and Joan’s grandmother, Blanche Feuer, during the last year of her life, when she was suffering from metastatic breast cancer.
Chronicling this story has been poignant and at times agonizing, as I relive the nightmare that began on October 15th 2015 when Allan was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. I was so determined that he would beat cancer, that it’s only now, when I look back at those early days, that I fully fathom just how ominous his prognosis was. Yet even as I write this, it seems surreal – I still can’t believe that he is gone. I was in shock. I'm still in shock – how everything fell apart so quickly. One minute he was enjoying his favorite dinner – creamed chicken, mashed potatoes, and corn – while watching his favorite show, Blue Bloods – and twenty-four hours later he was on life support. No wonder I still can’t believe it.
