offering a 2nd thought to my father's 2nd wife.

Influencing my father's lifelong interests for her sole interest.

 As a father ages, during a second marriage, his children must stay close. 

Older parents can become vulnerable; emotionally, physically, and mentally. 

What follows is my personal account, based on irrefutable facts about how my father's 

complete legacy was shattered by one-single woman with one-single motive. 

It is impossible to ignore the reality that without outside influence, my father’s will, estate and legacy would not have been dramatically altered...tilted overwhelmingly to favor one manipulative person, to the detriment of his 4 devoted children and, most heartbreakingly, his 10 adoring grandchildren. For decades, my father made his wishes unmistakably clear to each of his 4 children. He wanted every one of his 10 grandchildren to receive a portion of his estate; It was a legacy he cherished, with an estate that was earned way before he met his 2nd wife. First, and for decades, $25,000 was to be left for each grandchild, then it was reduced to $10,000. And then, somehow, someway that legacy vanished to zero. Gone. Erased. That is not by coincidence that is by coercion. My father did not wake up one day and say "Let me zero-out my grandchildren's inheritance, let me erase my legacy." No, he did not say that and he did not think that, and he did not initiate that. That is intent and manipulation by a self-centered 2nd wife. It is the very definition of undue influence and greed, an act that reveals despicable people, void of discretion with one ambition. 

I know, it's hard to believe, but the story continues.

Until April 2025, just 4 short months before my father's passing, and well into his final physical and mental decline, my father’s estate was ironclad, you know, carved in stone and had been balanced: half to his 2nd wife, and half divided equally among his 4 children. That was the fair and reasonable arrangement he had always intended, and, what he always told us. But then, almost overnight, again, 4 months before his passing, in his most vulnerable state,  that fair balance was torched. The distribution was changed to 76% in her favor and only 24% to his children. The timing, the circumstances, and the result all speak for themselves. It stands as a textbook case of coercion and undue influence. A caring 2nd wife would have urged a man, she truly loved, to leave something meaningful for his family and to ensure his grandchildren knew he loved them, and to keep his legacy firmly in place. Instead, she pressed him for more and more until almost nothing was left for his children, and nothing was left for his grandchildren. The inheritance to 10 adoring grandchildren was wiped-out by one self-centered woman.

I know, it's hard to believe, but the story continues.

My father's 2nd wife, in his final months, weeks, days and hours of his life, when compassion should have been the only thing in her heart, she continued to reveal her true motives. She pressed my father, in front of his 4 children and their spouses, multiple times, over-and-over again for a $28,400 Cartier bracelet. We were all in states of disbelief. Her cold, callous ways were on full display. The "Cartier Conversations" took place dozens of times; at their apartment, in hospital rooms, in rehab centers, at meals..and yes, even at his death bed. Despicably, and true to form, she asked for it one last time in the last hours of his life in front of his son, as my father was incoherent and transitioning. As hard as that may be to fathom, or to comprehend, or to make any sense of, that is a documented fact, and it is rotten to the core, and It is telling of who she is and the ulterior motives that truly drove her. 

I know, it's hard to believe, but the story continues.

Equally troubling is the fact that the equity of my father’s home, our family home for close to 4 decades, earned long before he ever met his 2nd wife was sold, and the proceeds were used to purchase the apartment they later shared. My father made it clear, on many occasions, to all 4 of his children, that the assets from that home , where he and my mother raised their 4 children, were intended to revert back to his estate after her passing. Yet, in the final restructuring of his affairs, that apartment and its full value were redirected entirely to her and her estate. That entire asset will now end up with her children and grandchildren  when she passes. That was never my father's wishes. What had once been the financial backbone of his first life, breaking his back with my mother with the equity they both built through decades of work was erased from his family  and redirected to her family. All by the actions of one-single woman with one-singular motive. 

I know, it's hard to believe, but the story continues.

My father's 2nd wife's behavior, after his passing, further defined her despicable self-loathing  motives. After my father passed, she said "My father wants his children to pay for the funeral, and not her." First, how vile, knowing that his final will and asset allocation was changed in April to her overwhelming benefit , and second; my father's will clearly states the Trust pays for all funeral expenditures. She offered, at first, to contribute a small portion towards her husband's funeral expenses; 1/5 of the cost, or $2,400, but then, despicably, she withdrew even that offer. That paltry amount, representing roughly 1/1000th of what she inherited from my father's life's work, was rescinded, her pathetic stance was further confirmed by her son. She did not attend his funeral, the final moment of dignity and closure for the man who supported her for nearly three decades; giving her a lifestyle she never could have achieved on her own. To date the 2nd wife still refuses to pay.

I know, it's hard to believe, but the story continues.

This is the true legacy she's chosen for herself...it's not one of dignity, or grace, but of greed, and self-interest all at the expense of the family she married into. She may have secured the financial outcome she wanted, but the moral cost of what she's done is far greater. What she took and canived for cannot be measured in money. She erased a grandfather’s legacy to his grandchildren. She betrayed the trust of his children. She chose calculation over compassion and greed over goodness. And in doing so, she set an example for her own children, who, like her, could not find the decency to attend the funeral of the man who made their mother a wealthy woman.

She should look inward, and seek forgiveness from my father first and foremost, for coercing him to erase his grandchildren’s inheritance, for staining their grandfather's legacy, and for abandoning my father in death. She should ask forgiveness for refusing even the smallest gesture of decency, the contribution to his funeral that she promised but withdrew. Because, in the end, this is who she is, and always will be...the 2nd wife.

 A caring 2nd wife would have urged her husband to honor the love he had for his family and the promises he made to his grandchildren. Instead, she encouraged a path that isolated him and rewarded herself, and her family. She may have achieved the financial gain she desired, but the reprehensible moral stain of her actions will never fade. 

I know, it's hard to believe but, that is...the 2nd wife.