Mother of Member Tracey Cain

My mother is residing in Stow, Ohio and she has a permanent guardian appointed by the court of Summit County, Ohio.

The guardian is a attorney in Akron who actually is a known guardian in Akron, Ohio. The guardian does not communicate with myself or my mother’s sister who lives in Pittsburgh. I live in Alexandria, Va, and have lived here for 28 years.

At the start of the story, my mother resided in her home in Akron, Ohio for many years which was my grandparent’s home and my grandparents signed the house over to my parents in the 80’s. My father passed away about 6 years ago which left my mother living on her own in good health.  But as a family, we did not know my mother had signs of vascular dementia until I took her to the doctor, and then she was diagnosed by a neurologist.

I do have a younger sister who lives in Medina, Ohio  – 14 miles from my mother’s home. My sister is estranged from my parents and did not help my mom when my father passed away or acknowledged his death. So I flew into the area to help my mom with my dad as well as her sister came in from Pittsburgh.  At that time my sister decided to get a power of attorney for my mother and at the time agreed if Vikki ( my sister) to help with anything for my mom since the rest of the family was out of state.

Mind you, my sister and I were in our late 50’s at the time of the story and we have a strained relationship with myself and my partner as well as my mom’s sister and her partner and my cousin who is my aunt’s daughter.

At this time my mother was having weird things happen like saying she fell and hit her head and my sister calling paramedics and finding out my mom didn’t fall but this was her trying to tell us her memory not working: she felt she hit her head.

At the time, my mom was not taking her blood pressure meds correctly.  My mom suffered from a mini-stroke because of not taking her meds correctly. My sister, who took on the responsibility of my mother ,was stating she wanted gas money from my mother to come to visit her and help her which was 14 miles away.

Then sometime after that, my mother had to have open-heart surgery because of a weakened valve that resulted from breast cancer radiation some years before.

So with that said and no one overseeing my mother’s surgery or an advocate at the hospital.  My partner, of 29 years decided to drive to Ohio with my mom’s sister to make sure my mom was taken care of.

My sister showed up at the hospital to cause issues with staff and my mom’s family.  My sister did not help at all and stayed away the whole time my mother had her surgery and aftercare at home. Patrick (my partner) and my mom’s sister, Jeri, stayed with my mother for a month at her home after her surgery to make sure all the aftercare was taken care of. After that, I came and stayed 3-4 weeks and the family (excluding my sister ) practiced this rotation for months.

During her time at the hospital, my partner bought my mother a giant screen TV, so she could watch a good TV; her current TV was old. Patrick bought my mom a computer so my mom could have eyes to the world and communicate with emails. Patrick and I bought her an apple phone so she could face time us. We also purchased cameras in and outside the home to watch my mom when we had to go back home.

After this time, my mother decided to sign 1/2 of the house that she owns to me and put me on the title so I could have it when and if she passed. She was in her right mind at the time and not diagnosed by anyone as incompetent and she wrote me a kind letter stating this and this was used in court.

I don’t know if I am missing anything, it’s so much. Soon after this, my sister who was the power of attorney was to hold up her part that should help my mom with doctor visits and fiduciary duties but none happened.  My mother has also been suffering from depression since my father passed and was calling me 14-15 times a day crying about being alone.

I had a heated discussion with my sister who stated she had too much on her plate to help my mother. So on Christmas Eve about five years ago, I drove to Ohio finding the house a mess my mother a depressed mess, with no food, bills not paid and her two dogs were not being fed correctly and I felt might be starving.

So I quit my job and stayed for eight months (without going back to Virginia) to help get my mom stabilized and back on track. At that time I changed the power of attorney to myself so I could get bills paid, and talk to doctors to make sure she was getting the proper treatment.

Long story short, I ended up staying 3 years going back and forth to Virginia and going to read school for Social Work from Fordham University. During this time, not one word or visit from my sister to my mother.  During the 3 years my mom progressed in her dementia but still okay to live at home with me or someone.

Moving forward, my mom lost it when I sold her car because it was rotting in the driveway and I was spending money on nothing. My mom agreed to the sale but then soon forgot. This set her off and she started calling my sister and my mom started getting violent with me throwing things and screaming.

My sister decided she would come and save my mom from me and threatened me with APS because of the alleged abuse. My sister had no idea of my mother’s decline or what my mother was going through.

My sister took my mom one day, stole her, and had her sign over power of attorney to herself and then told me I had to leave the house which I couldn’t because I would be attending an internship for my degree at a state hospital. So she kept my mom changed, all the bank accounts and mail to herself and I had no idea what was happening with my mother or her money. I did have my mom’s accounts frozen so my sister could not drain them and this was through an attorney in Akron, Ohio.

Mind you I had so much caregiver stress and anxiety that should have killed me, but I am a healthy person.

I applied for guardianship which my sister did not want and she refused to let me be guardian because she hates me and I would have moved my mom to Virginia, so the court’s assignment was this court-appointed guardian, named Justine Winger who immediately took my sister’s story and ran with the fact that I am a bad person and has been biased ever since the assignment.

I went to court and had attorneys for three years,  racking up some $50-60 thousand dollars in bills.  So far this guardian does not communicate with me, my partner, and my mom’s sister.  I am paying for the house I co-own with my mom and all the bills and lawn care and have a high-tech alarm system with cameras to make sure the house is safe and sound. The guardian has never offered to pay for my mom’s half. My mom was residing in assisted living in Medina where my sister dumped her and never visited her. COVID hit, so my mother was not doing well with being isolated in a room by herself and not having any family. The out-of-state family visited often making the long trek back and forth to Ohio and sending gifts and food to make sure she knew we were supporting her.

My mother was receiving move-out notices at the Medina Assisted living and I eached out to the guardian about it with no answer.  Little did we know Justine was not paying the bills.

So my mother (a year later) got sick with pneumonia and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. Again, no communication from the guardian but just sending a quick email that your mom is sick and in the hospital.

Patrick drove to Ohio to make sure she had support and someone to make notes from the care team there. Justine would not let us know anything. Then we found out my mom could not go back to her assisted living she had been evicted for lack of payment.

My mother stayed in the hospital over her stay because Justine had nowhere to put her. Patrick stayed the whole hospital stay as he did when my mom had one heart surgery – never leaving her side except to go home and sleep. My sister did not show up during this current hospital stay.

At this point after about 18 days, the guardian found her an interim place to stay which at the time did not know what was going on or the cost. Patrick made sure my mom had her toiletries and personal items as well as clothes to leave in and move into her interm place which was a month until Justine could find her another place. The Landing at Stow was very nice and cost $5,600 a month.

Also during this time, Justine decided not to pay a loan my parents took out and used the house for collateral .  I notified her the house is in foreclosure:  the amount is $13,000.  Patrick and I will not have let this happen.

We decided on mediation and the guardian showed her ass on the call.  We are paying and putting a lien on the house to get our money back.  In this time I already had submitted a very large complaint to the court about the attorney on many, many things. It sat there for 6 months with no response.  One day, I called the court they said it had not been reviewed yet.  I said ok and six days later I got a letter stating everything I stated in my complaint was not valid and it was dismissed. Now I don’t know the relationship between the guardian and the court but this guardian comes from a prominent law family in Akron, The Scanlon’s which owns half of Akron.

I have contacted the Ombudsman for my mom’s assisted living and she has visited my mother a few times she is watching out for my mom because I filed a complaint with her about the fact that I went to visit my mother two weeks ago and she was so drugged up, she had become incontinent, was not eating or talking and was not coherent my whole visit.

I did write the guardian wanting to know who consented to this medicine because it was abuse. My mom had a day where she got mad and threw books in the hallway and they decided they would drug the hell out of her to keep her quiet.

My mom, who called me every day of her life, never calls me anymore and sleeps all the time.  We walked her into this facility 2-3 months ago. I know she is being wheeled around in a chair because she is too tired to walk. So far they have weaned my mom off the meds  but she is still not the same.

All we want to do is move her closer to me and Patrick so she has family near her. She has no one coming to see her ever unless the out-of-state folks come. So she is isolated and by herself. When I call the assisted living, I ask how she is doing and they state can’t tell me and I need to call the guardian (who does not talk to us.

I probably missed a bunch of stuff because it’s a horror story and I have never thought I would be involved in such a mess.

I need help and I am tired. I am sending some pics of how my mom was left when she moved into her recent place and how the guardian left it. I paid my friend $100 to go over and organize her room.  Patrick went down and purchased a chest of drawers to put my mom’s clothes in because they were left in boxes and he organized the bathroom which was a mess, this is not good for anyone let alone a person with dementia.

We still don’t know anything about payments to the assisted living she is currently residing in.

I am so tired and I try to stay healthy but I myself now have severe stomach issues and Gerd resulting in stress.

Look at pics I am sending, I also have a video of everything also if needed.

We are trying to find a new attorney because our current attorney stated this was out of the scope of practice.