Opinion

Dear Annie: My oldest sister has five grown children. Four live out of town, and one lives with his mother. My sister has never been able to stand up for herself very well. The out-of-town children have been trying to get her money. They have even somehow made the court send her a letter to appear for a 30- minute evaluation to see if she has dementia. My sister is fully functional and takes care of paying her bills, cleaning her home, cooking, etc. She's not crazy or dysfunctional; she's just who she is. The outof-town children have put together a letter of character assassination against her other son and the rest of the family (myself included). I have never seen such a blatant bunch of lies and have never heard of a story worse than this when it comes to children trying to get a parents' money before they pass. Although, I did have a sister (we no longer have a relationship) who tried to get money from my mother as her inheritance before she died. The oldest child of my! Sister is the ringleader. He even went so far to say in the court letter that any and all expenses would be paid by his mother's investments.