I might as well tell this story: Twilah was an extremely intelligent lady who should have gone to university. She did not but instead decided to get her MBA from the University of Athabasca in Alberta. She aced all her assignments with A+ and the lowest grade of an A- on one paper. She managed to do all this while working at a time in her career with a lot of travel and relocating from the US to Canada and back. A little more than half way through the 2 year course she was diagnosed with cancer. She continued her studies and maintained her high scores. She finally had to withdraw from the course just prior to completing her final paper which would have been on her project of merging two companies. She did not tell the University she had been diagnosed as Stage IV.
Last November her father phoned the University, explained the history of why Twilah had withdrawn and asked that based on the strength of her high marks could they not see a way to award her diploma. They phoned Foster back within a week and agreed Twilah should be awarded her diploma and they would send it to her by courier on December 15th. They asked permission to phone Twilah first and let her know. We later found out from Twilah that she took their call while in a used book store with her daughter, sat down and cried. It was a great Christmas gift for Twilah because she worked so hard for her MBA.
Her Aunt Lou in Montreal felt Twilah deserved a bit more recognition of this achievement and bought a congratulations card together with a Canadian Postal money order for $100.00 US and mailed it to Twilah in January. She never heard if Twilah got her gift. After Twilah died Aunt Lou went to the post office and filed a claim for the lost money order. She waited the allotted time and the post office finally paid her back the $100.00. However in May the post office contacted Aunt Lou to let her know the original money order had been cashed in April, would send her a copy and expected to be paid back. Aunt Lou told the post office that it had been cashed by someone other than her neice because it was cashed after she died. It had been deposited into Phil’s bank account. The post office was now looking at a fraud case. Aunt Lou asked the post office to hold off on the case until she had the opportunity to get the money back. She phoned Phil and told him that it was a gift for Twilah not him and wanted the money returned. He told her that Twilah never saw the card so he took the money and deposited it in the bank. He agreed to mail it back to her. She received his check within two weeks and written on the cheque was “retracted gift”. Tacky! Now I know why I never heard from Twilah on other things that were sent to her, she was never given them.
Peggy Richardson
Twilah's step-mother
Dad & Twilah
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Signatures that might make you wonder
These signatures are from Twilah's Power of Attorney in June 2008 and on the new Will arranged by Phil on 12 February - 9 days before she died.
Part II from Twilah’s Dad
How sad! Some people have no shame.
I wanted to get Part II out sooner than this but as life goes when I lost Twilah I also lost a lot of my drive. As a result it has been easier for me to just think of Twilah and the circumstances I experienced as she lay dying than to get this worthwhile information down on paper so that folks know that whatever could be done was. They should also understand that this will never be over for me. The following is Part II along with comments on something that I feel needs clarification.
After Twilah’s death my daughter Jann phoned Twilah’s husband, Phil. On a prior visit Jann had discussed with him the possibility of Twilah’s family interring her with her Mom and sister Holly in Nova Scotia to which he was agreeable. To her shock and dismay when she identified herself and why she was calling he said, “Twilah’s been dead a long time.” and hung up on her.
My reaction to this after having witnessed the disdainful attitude he displayed toward Twilah while alive followed by these comments to my daughter, was to take some form of legal action to insure that Twilah’s remains and her wishes were respected. I engaged a lawyer in Denton County and followed his advice of petitioning the court to require Phil to produce her last Will to the court. This court order was disregarded within the time specified and I took further action where I was to appear in court on March 24th. I flew to Texas on the 23rd and on arrival was given a message to call my lawyer. Apparently while I was flying to Dallas, Phil finally supplied a copy of the Will. There was no mention of Twilah’s wishes for interment in this new document arranged by Phil 9 days before she died. It awarded Phil sole control of the Trusts which Twilah had set up for her family and all the Richardson Family heirlooms, mementos and photographs which Twilah’s Mom had made Twilah custodian of for eventual distribution to her siblings. As this new Will did not mention interment, there were no grounds to go to court which I cancelled and flew home. This also explains Phillip’s shouting at my daughter Laurie while she was trying to say good bye to Twilah on her death bed, “I do have control. I have complete control over Twilah. Now get out”. Twilah heard all this and more and died knowing her husband denied her seeing her father and sister. She knew we were there to see her but were blocked by her husband and for what reason? Why did he not want anyone to see Twilah?
My daughter Marilee visited with Twilah on February 13 – 15th and had communicated to me that she managed to get 10 minutes with Twi on Friday, 10 minutes on Saturday and on Sunday she was comatose, did not eat, drink and could only acknowledge her presence by blinking 3 times to Marilee. The new Will was 34 pages long and was signed by Twilah on February 12th just 9 days before her death. Because Marilee alerted me to Twilah’s true condition and the lack of communication from Phil I went to Dallas knowing I would be saying my final good bye to Twilah. Marilee was never allowed to be alone with Twilah during her short visit.
I know that some people leave the completion of a Will to the last moment but I know my daughter Twilah would not. In fact in one discussion with a family member Phil admitted there had been a Will drawn up in Pennsylvania. Twilah was extremely intelligent, super efficient, well organized, firm and decisive and made most of the major of decisions in her marriage. When I got the copy of the new Will from my lawyer and read it and looked at Twilah’s’ signature, it brought tears to my eyes. You can’t even recognize her signature. I can not for a minute believe that Twilah would have been able to read or even listen to 34 pages of that Will and fully understand it given her condition. It was a great time to get control of someone or something, eh? For shame!!
Twilah’s husband has been telling people that it was not him or his sister Pat Rogers who prevented Laurie Ann, Peggy and I from seeing Twilah but the Vitas Hospice caregivers that stopped us and then called the police to have us removed from the property. This is an outright lie, Phil and his sister obstructed our gaining entry to see Twilah after Phil told us we had 15 minutes to see her. We distinctly heard Phil instruct the caregiver to call the police. They were there in minutes and when Sgt. Huffman asked Phil if it would be okay if he escorted Laurie Ann and I in to see Twilah, Phil said no that he wanted us off the property.
How sad! Some people have no shame.
I wanted to get Part II out sooner than this but as life goes when I lost Twilah I also lost a lot of my drive. As a result it has been easier for me to just think of Twilah and the circumstances I experienced as she lay dying than to get this worthwhile information down on paper so that folks know that whatever could be done was. They should also understand that this will never be over for me. The following is Part II along with comments on something that I feel needs clarification.
After Twilah’s death my daughter Jann phoned Twilah’s husband, Phil. On a prior visit Jann had discussed with him the possibility of Twilah’s family interring her with her Mom and sister Holly in Nova Scotia to which he was agreeable. To her shock and dismay when she identified herself and why she was calling he said, “Twilah’s been dead a long time.” and hung up on her.
My reaction to this after having witnessed the disdainful attitude he displayed toward Twilah while alive followed by these comments to my daughter, was to take some form of legal action to insure that Twilah’s remains and her wishes were respected. I engaged a lawyer in Denton County and followed his advice of petitioning the court to require Phil to produce her last Will to the court. This court order was disregarded within the time specified and I took further action where I was to appear in court on March 24th. I flew to Texas on the 23rd and on arrival was given a message to call my lawyer. Apparently while I was flying to Dallas, Phil finally supplied a copy of the Will. There was no mention of Twilah’s wishes for interment in this new document arranged by Phil 9 days before she died. It awarded Phil sole control of the Trusts which Twilah had set up for her family and all the Richardson Family heirlooms, mementos and photographs which Twilah’s Mom had made Twilah custodian of for eventual distribution to her siblings. As this new Will did not mention interment, there were no grounds to go to court which I cancelled and flew home. This also explains Phillip’s shouting at my daughter Laurie while she was trying to say good bye to Twilah on her death bed, “I do have control. I have complete control over Twilah. Now get out”. Twilah heard all this and more and died knowing her husband denied her seeing her father and sister. She knew we were there to see her but were blocked by her husband and for what reason? Why did he not want anyone to see Twilah?
My daughter Marilee visited with Twilah on February 13 – 15th and had communicated to me that she managed to get 10 minutes with Twi on Friday, 10 minutes on Saturday and on Sunday she was comatose, did not eat, drink and could only acknowledge her presence by blinking 3 times to Marilee. The new Will was 34 pages long and was signed by Twilah on February 12th just 9 days before her death. Because Marilee alerted me to Twilah’s true condition and the lack of communication from Phil I went to Dallas knowing I would be saying my final good bye to Twilah. Marilee was never allowed to be alone with Twilah during her short visit.
I know that some people leave the completion of a Will to the last moment but I know my daughter Twilah would not. In fact in one discussion with a family member Phil admitted there had been a Will drawn up in Pennsylvania. Twilah was extremely intelligent, super efficient, well organized, firm and decisive and made most of the major of decisions in her marriage. When I got the copy of the new Will from my lawyer and read it and looked at Twilah’s’ signature, it brought tears to my eyes. You can’t even recognize her signature. I can not for a minute believe that Twilah would have been able to read or even listen to 34 pages of that Will and fully understand it given her condition. It was a great time to get control of someone or something, eh? For shame!!
Twilah’s husband has been telling people that it was not him or his sister Pat Rogers who prevented Laurie Ann, Peggy and I from seeing Twilah but the Vitas Hospice caregivers that stopped us and then called the police to have us removed from the property. This is an outright lie, Phil and his sister obstructed our gaining entry to see Twilah after Phil told us we had 15 minutes to see her. We distinctly heard Phil instruct the caregiver to call the police. They were there in minutes and when Sgt. Huffman asked Phil if it would be okay if he escorted Laurie Ann and I in to see Twilah, Phil said no that he wanted us off the property.
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