Unfortunately due to greed, lies, deceit & an untimely passing our rescue & over half (possibly all) of our breeding program is shutting down after 14 years. My mom passed away In May of 2022.
Prior to that in 2019 I put a manufactured home on my land (roughly 20 acres) for her & my step dad to live in with them maintaining the payment on it, all was good until 2021 when they both begged me to allow them to take over the loan I had gotten to purchase the house in order to get a lower payment they could afford, I agreed (huge mistake) but only with the agreement, made amongst all involved of a life estate meaning they could not borrow on or sale the land but could live there and do what they wanted with the area they chose, (roughly ½ acre) my free labor included (thousands of dollars worth) leaving the rest at my full use, as long as they lived at which time it would transfer back to my kids, as was it’s original intent when purchased years before.
This is all we have. I live paycheck to paycheck like most everyone else & would never GIVE away everything I or my kids ever had (mom or not) leaving us with nothing (no one would) I would have had it surveyed to convey just that area, but they had insisted that was not necessary as it would all come back anyway. They finally got approved but only with the land wrote up as a gift, as the manufacturered home held no equity for the bank to approve, no money ever exchanged. Well unfortunately the deed was not drawn up correctly as a life estate & was in the process of being fixed when my mother unexpectedly passed away in her sleep, although I was not immediately concerned as I had no reason to believe that my step father, a Jehovah’s witness & a supposed man of god, would not follow through with the agreement and would no doubt have the deed fixed correctly, as we (so I thought) were very close, so close I thought of him like a dad & treated him as such.
He was the only grandfather my kids had ever known. He personally had assured me things would be corrected. (I believed him) Until just a short couple weeks after her passing my step dad had made a complete 360, refused to answer my calls/texts trying to check on him, would not answer the door, completely ignored me & the kids. Even refused the invite to my daughter (his step granddaughters) graduation. I thought he was grieving as expected after such a loss, until I received a message from him less then one month after my moms passing mentioning finances, grieving, and jehovah in wording I’ve never heard him use, as if this was a whole different person. It set off a red flag immediately in my head, (what was he up to) as how was it possible for him to not know their financial situation? I had spent everyday for 3yrs with him & my mom living just 600ft from my own door. He had online mobile banking which I witnessed him continuously checking, on top of the fact my mom constantly mentioned things to him about their finances, as their primary source of money was her inheritance & it was about gone.
He insisted on early retirement through social security although she strongly disagreed with this decision as (her words) he lacked any kind of work ethic during their entire marriage although he was capable. Her being the soul provider throughout the marriage, she felt he should work. But he constantly made excuses why he couldn’t claiming he had some medical problem or religious duty that was more important to attend to, so they had to be careful with their spending habits. So this random message I received had me wondering, I tried to pass it off again, surely this person I thought I knew would never jeopardize our life or our home, much less try to take it. But as time went things got worse. He did not come down to my house for my moms memorial service nor did I get an invite to the Kingdom Hall service he held for her. I was told by my siblings I could watch it on zoom with them. I was shocked by this behavior, I had no idea who this guy was, this was not the person I had come to know & call dad.
So now here we sit a year and a half & thousands in lawyers later. I’ve still not had any direct communication or harsh words with him. He still refuses to respond or even wave when he passes right next to my house on the driveway, daily. Although I’ve now figured out his motives and reasons why. He has since told lies to multiple family members, puts on a religious facade (something my mom had also expressed concern about) to portray himself as something he’s not, hiding what he’s truly up to. He had immediately took out a substantial equity loan on the land (I recently found out about) that I had paid off, refuses to relinquish any of my family’s heirlooms (that have no link to him) mom’s personal belongings or any of my personal items in his possession and currently claims full ownership of the property. Unfortunately the state we live in does not recognize circumstantial evidence or what was supposed to happen concerning real estate & he refused to turn over any & all documents in his possession or even respond at all, so they only look at what did happen which by right of survivorship puts the deed in his name alone to do with what he wants. (Leading to numerous questions surrounding my mothers mysterious passing).
So I am now (by him) being evicted off of my land, land I bought & paid for years before he was here, land I worked, cleared, fenced, poured my sweat, tears & life into building up, land he never paid a dime for or put a day’s work into, land my business sits on, my well water lines supply, land my father, brother, grandmother & now mother are all buried on, land I should be buried on one day too, land that was supposed to go to my kids for their future and stay in my family for generations to come.
So unfortunately by giving my mom the only place she could ever call home, we are now faced with losing ours and where we go from here we are unsure but as it looks now we will be reduced to the 1+acre we are left with, leaving no room for the kennels & fields needed to comfortably house our precious babies & rescues (dogs & horses) forcing us to close our doors. My first and top priority at this time is to find loving forever families for our babies & second to get this story out there. My fight is not over yet & I’ll continue to fight for my kids & fur kids until I have no fight left. I’ll never regret the precious time I got with my mom being here or the happiness it brought her. I truly believe with my whole heart she would never do this to us or allow it to happen if she was here. But everyone please do not let this happen to you, please be aware of your legal documents and make sure all of your affairs are in order today because tomorrow is not promised, & no matter how close you are to someone, keep your guard up cause you never know what people are capable of or who they truly are when greed consumes them.