Last year my father died. He drove me away from the family a long time ago. It was just another name. No tears were shed, no joy felt. It was just the end of a chapter. I'm just glad that mum outlived him.
Daryn and I are his only biological kids and we were intentionally written out of the will. Daryn asked if I'd be interested in challenging the will. Initially I didn't care about it, but when I heard that he had also estranged Daryn I quickly changed my tone on that. When I heard that he had also estranged his grandchildren I was shocked at how callous he could be. At least, I wanted to be. When I heard that the start of this happened with the abuse of my mum, I was angry.
This started a long process with lawyers and his second wife, Marge. Her name is Margaret Kay Bassett and goes by Kay. However, I have an Aunty Kay and, unlike Marge, she is a good person and I just can't call her that. So "Marge" here is Margaret.
So at this point I was all in. In New Zealand a parental unit has the legal obligation to provide for their children in their will. If this is not done the courts can step in to "correct" this. With the way Eddie had treated Daryn and I this was pretty much a guaranteed thing. Our lawyer thought that Eddie had treated both of us extremely poorly. The lawyer for Marge acknowledged the same thing right from the get-go at the settlement hearing this week as well. The only thing to work out was the form that the settlement would take.
Anyway, the process started with affidavits being presented. Those from Marge were full of demonstrable lies. I was entertained when mum was able to present literal receipts that showed this as well. The lies went beyond financial claims though.
The stories she told were also lies.
The one that sticks in my mind was literally the very first thing that she said about me.
Literally no one recalls this. I don't, Daryn doesn't, mum doesn't, Aunt's and Uncles...
So this was a lie. Either Marge lied in her affidavit or Eddie lied to her. Near the end of the affidavit Marge claims that "Eddie was always very straight and didn't lie." I know this to be false. He was human and none of us are that perfect. But Marge may believe this so from that I conclude there's only one clear liar for lines 5 and 6.
Anyway... Tearing that document apart would take a while and I'm not going to do it in this post. If I can be bothered I may do more of it later. The record needs to be set straight. If this is the sort of thing that Marge is telling her kids, they need to know the truth.
So the judicial settlement conference was last Wednesday in Christchurch. And we settled. We're not happy with what we got. From all accounts Marge isn't happy either. For the next 12 years every time she looks at her bank account there will be a weekly line item that is a reminder that Eddie wasn't the great businessman she thought him to be. If he had been a good person, as Marge claims he was, he would not have written Daryn and I out of the will. A token amount would have prevented all this. But he wasn't. His own spite put Marge through this. If he'd been the successful business person she thinks he was there would have been plenty to go around, and again this wouldn't have been an issue and the estate could have paid out a lump sum.
This was meant to be about closure. I'm not sure I got that. There will likely be more posts about Eddie.
I may write my own obituary for him.