Anne N. McKenna
State of New York
In 2005, my sisters secretly took my mother to an elder law attorney and obtained a Durable Power of Attorney, Health care proxy, living will with them as agents. They put the family home in a trust and had my mother make her will. They had her transfer all her money to accounts in their names.
On Christmas Eve in 2006, my mother was abducted from the only home she has known for half a century. She was taken away from the people and things she loves under false pretences by my sisters. They told her she was going to get physical therapy to strengthen her weak legs, and to do everything the facility said, otherwise Medicaid would not pay for the therapy.
At first they took her to the hospital and then kept transferring her to different nursing facilities where they were drugging her with so many drugs that she could not lift up her own head and became so weak that she was unable to walk and talk and is now permanently in a wheelchair.
I filed a Writ of Habeas Corpus to get her out of the nursing facility but my sisters filed a guardianship Petition, and instead of bringing her home, the judge appointed a temporary guardian to put her at my sisters house because my sisters said in the petition that I abused my mother (we lived in the same house for 27 years). These allegations are false and at first devastated me. However, I later found that such accusations are a common pattern in guardianships because the goal in such a proceeding is not the person’s best interest, but rather it is about how unscrupulous people get the most money out of the estate. I was never given the opportunity to present any evidence or cross examine my sisters.
Instead, my mother is being still being held incommunicado at my sister’s home in Brooklyn in a wheel chair, with no phone in her room, no money to call a cab or cry out for help. And what can she do about it?
It is more evil and sad than you could ever imagine. It is emotional torture for both me and my mother who told everyone she wants to go home to see her dog, and to die in familiar surroundings. I have not seen or talked to her for almost a year and cry myself to sleep wondering how she must be feeling about the daughters she trusted who have betrayed her. And I wonder if she thinks I let her down.
My sisters filed the guardianship Petition asking to be able to put my mother into a nursing facility for good, and to be able to evict me from the family home and sell it. All of this is against my mother’s verbal and written wishes.
Feel free to call me anytime: Annie McKenna, 631 549-5665, friday@optonline.net
You can see my YouTube videos if you search for: imamensa
2024:
NASGA mourns the passing of a dear friend and long-time advocate: Annie McKenna.
Annie has been a loyal and dedicated member of NASGA practically since its inception. She was also our very first “Media Liaison” – a volunteer job she took seriously. She was an avid videographer and made many videos of NY victims, giving them a voice and hope that their voice would be heard. Indeed their voices were heard and Annie worked with a prominent reporter back then who did several reports on NY and CT cases.
Annie had a gift for boiling down a complicated case to get to the core which would interest media. She was professional, always positive in her approach and very thorough; her words were measured and concise.
Annie was a real treat to know. She was witty beyond belief and she was inquisitive and interested in just about everything. She was talented and creative and she cared about people trapped in unlawful or abusive guardianships with her whole heart and soul.
We will miss her, her level head and quick wit – and her laugh. Annie McKenna helped NASGA grow; she made us better; and her influence will always be with us.
Godspeed Annie.