Hey Skip. I know you are good friends of Mr. Welch. I don't know him or his family at all. But perhaps there is another side to the story.
As someone who recently spent a lot of time taking care of my ill father (and, some years ago, my ill grandmother), I can tell you that you do the best you can for them. What needs to be done for their best interest may not necessarily be what appears best to them or to outsiders.
He may not have wanted to go into a nursing home. But to say they were going to "put him in a nursing home and leave him there" makes it sound like they were going to abandon him. Maybe they were. Or maybe they understood that he would need more care than he could provide himself or that they could provide him. I had to "put my father in a nursing home" last year. He didn't want it. But in truth, it was the best thing for him and for me. His needs exceeded my ability (and I have far more ability to provide care than most folks). Fortunately, Dad realized that it was best for him, after a while.
The same is true with someone's property. Really, this man is 80 and it sounds like he is in poor health. He may even be confused or even have early dementia. Will he be doing anything with his sirens? Dad did no work on our ambulances in the last years. And maybe Mr. Welch "unwittingly" gave his daughter Power of Attorney, or maybe he did so voluntarily. He should have. If you are sick and can't make decisions for yourself, someone needs to.
My father and I took care of Power of Attorney and most of these paperwork matters ahead of time - except one. He didn't sign over the titles of the ambulances in his name to me before he died. Now I am going through a huge hassle to get the titles transferred, even though the Will was clear. If we had done that before hand, it would have been simple (and tax-free) to transfer them over. I can't even take those ambulances (the '60 Flxible Buick, '57 Desoto, and '64 Superior Pontiac) out on the road for now, until this resolves.
From the point of view of someone who cared for an ill family member, I see it from the other side. Why would she "steal" the sirens? If he's not going to be using them, isn't it best to sell them - maybe she needs to use the money for his care? You can't pay hospital bills with sirens, they only take cash.
I don't know her, or him. For all I know, she could be a conniving b!+@# who is using her father's money to buy booze or drugs. Or perhaps she is doing the best thing for her father.
Thanks for your comments, Steve. Until I got to the end of your comments, I had been a bit insensed by what you had said, until you qualified yourself at the end.
You know I've had my share of working with seniors over the years: once at a nursing home as an "orderly" back then, and at an extended care hospital in Lubbock. As I've mentioned in the past, we had my dad in an assisted living place in Midland...although he would've been better off in a nursing home. Because of a series of light strokes that he had suffered, one of them during open heart surgery, he went downhill quite quickly. We had an attorney who had been a longtime family friend appointed to handle his business and other legal affairs. By the time he died just before his 81st birthday, his mental status had deteriorated drastically.
But in Harold's case, this just isn't so. I spoke to him when he got home last week. He called me to let me know what had happened. I agree that at nearly 80 he can have some "senior moments", but I do that myself. Because of the blockage I had prior to my open heart surgery in 2004, I have fits with short term memory on occasion. Everyone here knows how I like to tell old "war" stories, and on occasion I can be in themiddle of a story, and if I'm momentarilly distracted I'll forget what I was wanting to say, only to remember a minute or so later.
Harold, unfortunately, has had problems with his daughters in the past, and had commented to me that he didn't want them inheriting any of his estate. I told him then that he needed to have that done legally with an attorney and specified in his will. That, I don't think, ever happened. I had spoken to the older daughter, Laura, right after this last hospital stay, and she had even mentioned that she knew that if anything were to happen to Harold, the siren collection was to be mine. But to that end, I'm not of aware of any of that actually being in writing.
As to my comment about them wanting to "dump" him off in a nusing home, that came from him. He had been informed by nursing staff at the hospital before he left that they were surprised because the daughters had already made "arrangements". Imagine his surprise when he returned home to find an almost-empty house.
Aside from the sirens and steam whistles and tractors, he also lost a larg coin collection, several guitars and other items from the house. Some of those things have been recovered. The daughters have fled to Antlers, OK, and he was told by someone who had been in contact with them that the sirens were with them and were gong to be auctioned off in Antlers sometime this week. Since law enforcement is now involved, hopefully that won't happen.
Regardless of the outcome, it's just sad when someone can't trust their own kids, adult or not.
