49 Parents die, siblings visit. Song: “Heart Of Gold”
It has been hard for me to write about losing two of my accounts (shown below) because I worked over 23 years earning earning them, and it’s probably too laborious for anyone to read, but as I wrote these last pages, I was thinking more of my mother than myself, because in comparison to what I lost, the way that my mother was affected was even sadder. After our parents died, I learned from our father’s letters that he had helped my siblings with owning houses, and going to private schools, and colleges, while the GI BILL paid for most of my college education. While my siblings reaped in my father’s financial contributions, they never worked for either parent, nor lifted a finger working toward what they inherited. Our father made it doubly hard for me, obviously because he wanted to make it fair in the long run, and he made his point while I attended Kent State, saying that the way he was making me do things, was exactly the way in which he had to do things while he was going to Kent. Still, I wonder, why I never had any idea, then, where the Kent fraternity which my father was in, was even located. And, why I never learned anything about it, or had any choice considering being in any fraternity. However, my father went out of his way to meet behind my back, with my first dorm floor’s resident advisor, and I only learned about that from my resident advisor (explained). Then, after my father died, I figured out, albeit too late, how all of my accounts were stolen. (Shown in photo…DOCUMENTS showing my Ryan Beck & Merrill Lynch client account agreements). Also stolen were my “rent” account, and my checking account which I was living on called the “house” account (and rent account). I earned co-owned accounts with each parent. I punched in on a time clock at my parents’ ski area in Ohio, and my Florida work hours were recorded by my mother in several composition books, which someone removed from the house during one of my siblings’ visit(s), after our father died.
Our father offered all three children the opportunity to work at his ski area in some form or another, so that we each could earn something which we could rely on in our old age. I thought that being sure that I would have something in my retirement, and old age, was the smart choice. So, I chose to work, and both siblings chose not to work for their parents, toward earning something toward retirement.
During our father’s family meetings, my siblings were given the choice, to work for their parents, and they chose not to. During our mother’s family meeting after our father died, my siblings nodded in agreement to respect our mother’s orders, and intentions. Our mother explained rhetorical accounts I had earned, and she explained about my co-owned accounts which I was earning with each parent. I had no idea that my siblings would use their knowledge of the co-owned accounts I was earning, to steal my co-owned accounts with each parent, nor knew that my brother was continuing his adolescent game into his old age by regarding his parents’ intentions, and his mother’s orders, as if they were a game, and he could make up his own rules, like my sister did, as co-trustees of our father’s estate. (But everything went to our mother upon our father’s death, then equally distributed between us three siblings).
Both of our parents’ signature stamps (See one of them in the photo) were obviously used illegally, in order to make my accounts disappear. (My mother actually showed me after our father died, that her signature had become very SQUIGGLY, and obviously nowhere nearly the same as her signature stamp.) Then, when our mother died, I become suddenly homeless, penniless, evicted, and misrepresented. My co-owned bank account with my mother disappeared upon our mother’s death, as did all of my mother’s, and my own mail, and despite me trying to forward it back three times, it was never forwarded back.
After our father died, our mother showed me the mechanics of how my financial account quarterly interest checks had always been arriving in my name for decades, and how every single one of them from my Merrill Lynch account went into my Bank of AM. #1678063727 “rent” account, and had paid my rent for DECADES. My 3727 “rent” account was titled “Mid-America”, (see photo below) which was always used only, and specifically, for paying my rent.
Since I was the PRIMARY account holder JWROS (joint with rights of survival), and since my father was the SECONDARY account holder, these accounts SHOULD HAVE belonged to me upon our father’s death! I remember the name of the man from the Medina Ohio Merrill Lynch office calling me when I was working at my father’s ski business in Ohio.
The man who called me while I was still in high school in Ohio, was from Merrill Lynch, and he told me that my dad had started an account on my behalf. He had a very memorable name, so I remember it, even now – Mr. Isaac Sadicky. But, when I tried to call him back after my parents died, in order to establish that this was the account that I had worked decades earning, the Merrill Lynch office where he worked said that he didn’t work there anymore, and they couldn’t give me any information whatsoever regarding my account. Then, before our father died, I saw that I had a Sun Bank account, so I happened to walk into the Naples Sun Bank to see if I could cash a work paycheck, and I was informed that under my social security number, I did have a Sun Bank account with $20,000.00 in it! I couldn’t believe it! Then, when I went back a few days later, to that same bank on the corner of the Rt 41 East Trail and Rt 951, they said that my account disappeared there, too, and they wouldn’t give me any other info! The next time that I went there, only weeks later, the whole bank had been leveled, and it was gone!
In 1985, my father began letting me sign a book of checks which he gave to me, but he made sure that I understood that I had to note on each monthly check which he was letting me write to my landlord: “RENT AND HOUSEHOLD EXPENSES”, and he made me promise that I would NOT write any other check for ANYTHING else. Unfortunately, my brother was STILL purposefully trying to confuse me just like he did when I was a child trying to learn while doing my homework after he had whacked me in the head, and knocked me out with a baseball bat, or whacked me in the forehead with a golf club which caused a permanent disability. He was still trying to confuse me in exactly the same way that he tried to when I was trying to learn as a child in school. Then, after our father’s death, he continued trying to confuse me in exactly the same way when he became aware of what our mother’s intentions for me were regarding the “house” checking account. Our mother was so upset about knowing he was doing what he was doing against her wishes regarding me having the accounts I earned, and about the fact that he had SHOUTED AT HER ABOUT IT WHILE IN THE ICU, WHEN OUR MOTHER AND I WERE ON OUR WAY HOME FROM THE HOSPITAL, INSTEAD OF GOING HOME, SHE TOLD ME TO TAKE HER STRAIGHT TO THE BANK! I only found out at the bank, that her reason for going there was to be sure if any changes had to be made, and/or to find out if she needed to sign anything in order to be sure that I would have ALL of our co-owned account when she died!
My siblings never lifted a finger to earn a dime of what their parents generously gave to them their whole lives, but I worked for decades toward earning what I would finally receive for my RETIREMENT… namely my investment accounts co-owned with my father, and my Bank of Am #1672334900 “house” account co-owned with my mother. Unfortunately, neither my mother nor I realized that our 4900 account, somehow, had my father’s EISN number associated with it (whatever THAT is)! Neither my mother nor I ever knew what an EISN number was, but our account which we were co-owners of for over thirty years, was purged, frozen, stolen, and moved to my brother’s bank in MI. And, since I obeyed our father’s rule to stay out of his office things, I didn’t discover that I even co-owned a Ryan Beck, & Legg Mason account with my father, until finding out about it after our father died (but that was obviously what my father meant about matching, then doubling, everything he invested for me, if I agreed to volunteer for military service during the Vietnam war, and I did.
My mother was so afraid when she realized what my siblings were doing, that she orchestrated a meeting at her house with her, me, and Ft Myers Lawyer Ullman regarding my Bank of Am “house” account SEE PROOF ISSUED TO ME BY THE BANK AFTER MY MOTHER DIED, SHOWING
I OWNED IT. Lawyer Ullman wrote the following letter that I requested after our mom died, saying that he recalled my mother’s intentions for me to receive it (see letter).
My brother couldn’t conceal the fact that he was angry about my “house” account, after our mother explained that I had earned it from her, for working in, and on the house full time hours for over a decade. I can’t help to remember, in the MOMENTS BEFORE BOTH OF MY MOTHER’S OPERATIONS, how my brother had tried to get her to sign his legal papers. And, how he was so frustrated, and mad that she wouldn’t sign them. She continued to insist that her decision regarding me using our joint “house” checking account in order for me to purchase a house of my choice with, WAS FINAL!
Still, he wouldn’t stop nagging her about it, and he even had the audacity to threaten to have us both criminally prosecuted for writing checks from it! She had to keep explaining that her decision about me having the account was FINAL AGAIN, AGAIN, AND AGAIN. And, she had to explain that she wanted, and needed Douglas (me) living at the house, in order to care for her after her operations, as well as needed me to continue working on the house. My brother would never accept those facts, or accept when she returned home from her second operation, following her orders assigning me to be in charge of selling the house when the time came to have to sell it. Regardless, as soon as my brother learned about his mother’s intentions, and instructions, he STOLE THE DEED TO MOM’S HOUSE, then obnoxiously, loudly, and defiantly, refused to ever give the house deed back. And, my health records, as well as passport remain missing!
I’ll never forget noticing when I started realizing, myself, that my siblings appeared as if they were planning on doing things behind my back after our father had died, and they were told that they were the co-trustees of our father’s estate. It was when I saw my sister’s reaction Ito something my brother said after visiting our mother during her first of two operations. We were in the hospital lobby after the three of us had wished our mother good luck just prior to her first operation. That was the only time in many years that my brother, sister, and I were together anywhere but, when I suggested that the three of us go meet, and eat together somewhere, my big brother proudly, and pompously proclaimed, “No Doug” while clapping his hands together, and gritting his teeth, said “Deb and I have to meet to discuss our STRATEGY”, and just the two of them left together. My brother was busy working on receiving his PhD in sociology, so he was in an obvious hurry finishing up whatever he felt needed to be done in Naples. In my opinion, he was more interested with his mother dying as soon as possible, than he was with his mother recuperating. Among the things that he shared with me (as if he was being smart by proudly stating so), was telling me that he was using PROPAGANDA TECHNIQUES taken from one of his TERRORISM BOOKS, which he actually bragged was what he used ON ME in Naples, in order to accomplish his “strategy”. I would argue with his admission to me, that my brother felt SMART and PROUD to lie, cheat, and steal, while even participating in ongoing malicious deeds. After my mother died in shame watching what her own children did, I was left to wonder about, and experience what else might happen. I understand, now, how my sister was coached, and how my own lawyer Charlie Murray’s secretary named Lisa Prevost, Krimmel, Rudderman, joined in participating in the unscrupulous behavior, as if it was all a game, and one that they could make, break, stretch the rules, and even break the law.
After both parents died, I discovered that I suddenly had nothing for food, and had to vacate my mother’s house by a certain date. I hired someone I met named Wanda, who was helping me pack at $10.00 per hour, but she stole $8K cash which she found. She stole it right in front of me, and walked out the door. This happened 24 hours after I was informed that my mother died, and while I was still in shock, so didn’t even know what to do, and still don’t. Then, my brother promised me $25,000.00 cash because he knew that I had given that much back to my father at $2K per Christmas, out of the twenty five hundred cash which our father gave to all three children at Christmastime starting during the last few years of his life. I didn’t get that back, even though I had my father’s promise, and the cash accounting of what he SHOULD HAVE matched, IN WRITING, toward a replacement vehicle for my aging van. My brother actually used that situation in order to con me into agreeing to move out of my mom’s house. Then, he gave me HALF the amount he stated in wring that he would give me. He stated that
he would pay me $25,000.00 to purchase a replacement van (if I would be out of the house by that date), but it was just double talk for only paying me $25K once, when it should have been ($25K me having moved everything out of the house into storage), and I was out by when I had to be, by Sept 1st, AND $25K OF MY OWN CASH BACK, because I had given $2K back to my father each year, and had my father’s signed receipt of me giving our father back a total of $25K toward buying a replacement van.
Incredibly, my sister, and my brother, locked me out of our mother’s house during each of their solo visits to Naples after our father died. My brother did it as if it was his childish prank when I showed him the BONDS I had found which my father told me to store in the garage. Then, my brother laughed his Woody Woodpecker laugh every time I knocked to get back in, until he finally let me back in the house about 20 minutes later, but didn’t discuss the bonds other than to say, “I’m glad you found them”. I had no idea that I had actually happened upon a whole bunch of $5,000.00 bonds from 1987 (see photo), most of which were worth $120K EACH, which matured in 2009! My “trustee” brother turned out to be not so trusty.
I found the bonds in one of the banker boxes which my dad had me stack on the wooden garage shelves, and put five of them in my pocket for proof that they existed, but I had no idea if they were worth anything, and Lisa obviously stole all five of them from me. When I showed my brother the box of bonds, he took the banker box and immediately shut and locked the door. Later, he said, “I HAVE NO RECOLLECTION OF ANY BONDS”. Then, Lisa (my lawyer’s secretary who let me stay in her house when I had no money and nowhere to go after my mother died), obviously took the five bonds that I had kept for the proof that they existed. I had innocently left them in my room in Lisa’s house, and from there they went missing after I had no choice in buying Lisa’s house, but I still didn’t know what the bonds were, nor what they were worth.
I only knew that they were gone! Then, when I discovered the certificate numbers (shown above), and a lady from the state department explained (when I tuned her piano) that they were probably bearer bonds. When I tried to report the thefts to the police, the police officer who came to Lisa’s house (this was after Lisa had moved out, and into “her” condo which she obviously purchased with “my” money, then sold for a $140K profit and disappeared for four years) refused to make a police theft report> The police officer said, “How do I know that YOU didn’t cash the bonds”? When police refused to make out a report, all I could do was write to the treasury department, but got no answer.
I woke up one evening while my brother visited Naples, to hearing my brother shouting at his mother. I had just gone to bed when I could faintly hear my mother pressing my brother repeatedly about something. I was fully awakened hearing my brother loudly and sarcastically state twice, “Yeah right mother, I STOLE the deed”, then he repeating it with the emphasis on STOLE. Besides my brother stealing the cash box, and scratching out his mother’s name where it said, “To be opened by Dot”, and writing in, “Mike”, now I was hearing him admitting to stealing our mother’s HOUSE DEED! He did that to prevent his mother from completing her last step of getting her mortgage down from $2,800.00, to an affordable $1,400.00 per month so, and she explained what she was doing, and why, to all of us, so we could afford to stay in the house together! Those were her instructions, and that was her RIGHT, but my big brother found the house deed and kept it! He refused to give her the house deed back, and he never gave the deed back. This is what untrustworthy trustees do! I believe that what he did was criminal. This prevented our mother from getting HER mortgage down. What she wanted to do with HER HOUSE was make it so that her children could enjoy visiting Naples, and stay at the house together while she was RECUPERATING. Unfortunately, she went from being so happy to see her three children together, to seeing that she had been crying regularly from receiving my siblings’ harassing phone calls every time they knew when I would not be at home with mom, when became the time my brother would call with his demands. Our mother was ashamed of both siblings’ behavior, and of my brother’s malicious crime of stealing the house deed, which prevented our mother from getting the mortgage reduced from $2,400.00 per month, to $1,400.00, so that I could afford to live there while fixing up the house to sell it. But, my brother’s thefts even prevented me from being the one in charge of selling the house. (See letter to my mother’s mortgage company).
Ms Debra Russell, and Cathy Shaneberger (the trust legal secretaries), and two other out of town $400.00 per hour IRS lawyers, were at the house all day long for three days straight looking for the financial files, and couldn’t find any! Only after my dad’s trust secretary (now lawyer) gave her word to my mother that I would receive all of the #4900 “house account”, did my mother tell me to go get, and give to Ms Russell all three boxes of financial files. Eventually, Ms.Russell returned to the house and stated, “And now Mrs. Dover, we need ALL the records for the #4900 “house account”.
Her request made my mother very bewildered, and mom replied, “I don’t understand, why would you need THOSE records?” Then, after our mother died, Ms. Russell lied in writing, saying, “At no time did I ever ask for the bank records for the 4900 house account.” My “house” checking account was confirmed by Naples bank employee Steven Foster from the Naples Bank of Am. (at the time he called me, it was called Nations Bank) on Immokalee Rd and US 41 in Naples. He called me on 6-14-1998 in the morning at (239) 592-5479, which was about 30 (thirty) years after my mom informed me of my mother’s intentions. He also gave me the account number #1672334900. He said that was calling regarding the trust account he stated which “MRS. DOVER HAD STARTED FOR HER SON DOUGLAS”. Only after Ms Russell give us her word that I would be receiving my “house” bank account I had EARNED from my mother, did we TRUSTINGLY gave all of the financial files (three banker boxes full), to Deborah Russell and Cathy Shaneberger. My mother told me to be sure that the TAX would be kept “EXACTLY AS THEY ARE, AND IN THE EXACT ORDER THEY WERE IN”. They obviously had no intention of honoring my mother’s instructions regarding what our mother wanted. They were only concerned with what their clients ((MY BROTHER AND SISTER) wanted. Later, I discovered that the fax, below, was sent to the bank from my brother, who was pretending to be my mother, and it was regarding regarding our #4900 “house” account she had always wanted for me. The fax was stating that I was “no longer authorized”;
When I learned that my “house” account vanished when my mother died, I also learned where the trust legal secretary I gave the financial files to, was working. I went to try to ask her what had happened to my account, but the man working at the front desk called her on the phone, but he told me that I had better leave. When I stated that I didn’t understand, he shouted over to an associate, “call the police”! (Excerpt from file #49938 2030730 from my lawyer Charles Murray shows his legal secretary Lisa Prevost Krimmel Ruderman’s email to Ms. Debra Russell who (now lawyer) who represented my brother and sister’s interests in our father’s trust assets, and it stated, “Dear Ms. Russell, I am in receipt of and thank you for your letter of August 1st. Your proposal is unacceptable to my client. His offer to his brother on July 25th was only a response to repeated threats of having Doug declared incompetent. Your letter of August 1st does not in any manner relate to Michael serving as co-personal representative with Doug, but rather for Doug relinquishing his right to serve as PR (as he was appointed) so that Michael and Deborah could serve as co-personal representatives. Quite frankly, I don’t see any advantage there, whatsoever.”
My brother was harassing his mother in the ICU (she was purposefully acting unresponsive after unsuccessfully trying to get my BROTHER to SHUT UP). It was the ONLY way, and the ONLY thing left that she could do. She was SO ashamed of him making so much noise yelling, “Mother, you’re not being FAIR”, which obviously greatly disturbed all in the ICU. He was even harassing the doctor, and the doctor ignored him. I believe that my sister (instead of being at the hospital that day) was making a scene at the bank at that same time, over my co-owned checking account. Mary Sequrie from the Bank of Am. remembers my little sister’s scene to this day. My brother continued non-stop demanding that the doctor sign the documents which my brother carried around with him in the ICU (the one stating that my mother was being “unresponsive”! The second that my brother received that signed document from the doctor, my brother walked straight out and left while sneering at his mother, and our mother was put back in her hospital room where I watched her sleep all night. I left at dawn to go home and eat. And, when I started walking out of her hospital room, she spoke to me. She voiced a final, loud, and emphatic, “GOODBYE”. Then, on the next morning, and to my total surprise, my brother and I got the phone call from the hospital saying that our mother had, supposedly, died! All I know for sure is that our mother lived her whole life giving to others, she was a selfless mother, the rock of our family, and her love will surely live on forever.
After we were informed that our mother had died, my brother and the trust secretary arrived at the house for one last brief visit. My brother walked straight down the hallway, into our father’s office, and right back, stopping at our mother’s desk. He opened the top right hand drawer, put her signature stamp back where it had always remained priorly, walked past me again, and stopped just inside the garage door standing facing me, next to the trust secretary. He quickly whispered a question in her ear, and when she nodded “yes”, my brother reacted with an uncontrollable jump, and exclaimed, “OH BOY, I WIN”! Then, Mr. Fuller called for me to meet him at the Fuller funeral home where he told me that our mother had been cremated, my brother was busy racing to get my co-owned “house” checking account purged, frozen, and moved to his bank in MI. After Mr. Fuller asked me to bring a $5,000.00 check to cover expenses, I arrived, and dutifully gave him one. Then, my brother arrived, and for some reason, but he too, was prepared to pay with his own $5K check obviously from what would have been his own brand new “trust” account, and he completely “freaked out” when he realized that I had already written the check out of my co-owned account with my mother, for my mother, which I had been using as my own for over a year, and had paid all of the other bills with (including a $5K check to my sister for the supposed “trust†which my sister made us all believe was to insure that I could keep my checking account, but if that trust had been signed, it would have, instead, made my little sister my guardian. That is what happens among siblings when parents die. The funeral home just wanted to be paid, but my sibling seemed to only care about sabotaging my checking account in order to leave me in the world without any funds of any kind. My brother rudely told Mr. Fuller that I was being “CRIMINALLY PROSECUTED FOR FORGERY, AND BAD CHECK WRITING” (more of his slanderous lies and threatening remarks). My brother reached into his pocket slippery quick, and frantically scribbled a check from what was obviously his brand new account, and traded it for the check that I had given to Mr. Fuller. He actually ripped up my check and tossed it right on the funeral home floor where I and Mr. Fuller stood, then immediately stormed out without spending a respectful moments pause, quiet reflection, thought, or prayer of any kind for our mother’s, or for our own sake as brothers. I apologized to Mr. Fuller, and as I walked out behind my brother, My brother continued airing his authoritative indignities at me while walking out the door. While continuing his rant all of the way through the parking lot, a robin leaped right out of a nearby tree, and flew right into my brother! It actually appeared that it was because my brother didn’t/wouldn’t slow, or stop his obnoxious loud “big brotherly” criticism, that robin didn’t/wouldn’t stop his banging right into the back of my brother’s head as he walked away. This robin flew away and back into his head over and over again, and it was squawking directly at him the whole time, even louder than he was talking! It was a real phenomenon! My brother ducked and exclaimed, “Jesus”, then actually (and incredibly) stopped talking (only briefly of course). When he continued his vocal rave, that robin continued following, and attacking my brother. It was squawking loudly, and repeatedly pecking at him right into his head area the whole time we walked to our separate cars, and left. (I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It seemed so fitting).