qondio.com/o291

The Survivor and the Con Artist

My aunt Serena, about whom I have written before, A Memoir of a Survivor had survived the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. The Russians liberated the Czechoslovakian people only to hold them captive again. Because she couldn’t immigrate to the USA she resumed her career and her life. She discovered that the Nazis had murdered all of her remaining relatives. The town of Trnava was depleted of all the Jewish residents. Only the Jewish Cemetery remained.

She found a good job and a nice apartment in Bratislava, married a communist and then got divorced. But she longed to be with her remaining family and her family in America continued to hope she could join them. Finally, in 1960, after many attempts, she managed to get a tourist visa to come to Chicago for a two-week visit. She knew she would not return but in order to not arouse suspicion, she packed clothing sufficient for a two-week visit and left all of her remaining possessions behind.

When she arrived in Chicago her sisters and brother were overjoyed to see her. My father had last seen her when she was ten years old. That was a forty-year separation.

She again found a good job and began a new life. My other aunts, who had brought her here and helped her get settled, introduced her to an eligible bachelor. He had recently lost his mother and was ready to be married. They were both in their early 50’s and they enjoyed each other’s company. Their marriage lasted more than 30 years and they had a secure and comfortable life. They worked for many years and invested and saved their money so they had amassed a large retirement account and lived in a nice condominium in a Retirement Community in Pembroke Pines, Florida.

When I visited her in Florida she told me about her life in Communist Czechoslovakia and her escape from the Nazis during the war. We talked about our family’s history and about my grandparents. She now had a family –– a niece and two nephews. I was the one to whom she told all of these stories because I visited her in Florida and she visited me in Chicago.

After my aunt became a widow when she was well past 80 years old, she continued to travel and enjoy life and she made new friends. One of these friends was the young married daughter of a neighbor. This woman was very kind and solicitous to my aunt. At the time she was estranged from her own mother and she and her husband, who was a lawyer, invited my aunt to visit them in New York. This was an exciting trip and she decided to take them up on the offer.

When her husband died she found herself in need of some estate planning and she wondered if I could help her. I did not know any lawyers in Florida, but I was sure she would find someone who could give her good counsel. She was in need of financial guidance. She needed a will after her husband’s death and the fact that she did not have a will worried her. I knew she had planned to leave some of her estate to her sister’s grandchildren, to her husband’s family and to many charitable organizations. This was a promise she had made to her sisters who had helped her when she immigrated to America. She told me she planned to ask her friend’s husband if he could recommend someone. At the time, I thought that was a good idea.

While my aunt was in New York I continued to call her just to keep in touch.

I tried calling my aunt frequently. For some unknown reason, the family she was visiting would not let me talk to her saying she was not available. In addition, she stayed about a month longer than she had planned and it was bothersome to me that I could not get in touch with her. I didn’t suspect anything wrong, but I was annoyed at the people who seemed to be holding her hostage.

I was in Florida when aunt Serena returned from New York. I visited her with my daughter and two young grandsons and we all went out for lunch. She seemed very distracted and not as alert as she usually was. But, considering that she was 89 years old, I thought she was great. She told me that she now had a will and everything was taken care of.

Afterwards we went to her apartment where she had numerous collectibles of cars and plates and coins and all kinds of objects. Previously when she asked if I wanted these things, I told her I was not very interested but I would help her sell them if she wished. However, this time my grandsons expressed an interest in the cars and I said, well, you can give these cars to the boys. Her response was, “no, it’s all taken care of.”

Several weeks later my aunt died. I received a call from my aunt’s young friend who told me Serena had asked her to be in charge of handling the funeral arrangements which had been prepaid. I quickly flew to Florida and discovered the funeral was to take place immediately. It was very hurried and minimal without plans for a period of mourning and I had no say in the arrangements. In addition, when I told her I wanted to go to my aunt’s apartment and see her neighbors there, she said I could not do that as her husband was executor of the estate and he would not allow me to enter the apartment.

I was very stunned and bereaved that I had not had a chance to mourn her properly and visit with her friends, but as there was nothing I could do about it, I returned to Chicago.

Afterwards, I called one of her friends living in the same retirement complex. She told me that this couple were reputed to have swindled her own mother and brother out of their estate.

Within a few weeks I got a call from a Florida lawyer who was acting on behalf of the New York lawyer, and was told my aunt had left most of her estate to her young friend’s three children. She left me $20,000 and I bought a new car in her memory.

And so, my aunt the survivor, in her final year, met her match.

Contributor's Note

It is not always possible to tell when you are dealing with a con artist. Seniors should be very careful whenever they meet new friends and other people who offer to help them with their finances.

This is a horrifying story. Our older citizens sometimes become vulnerable in ways we can't imagine, although con artists can and do imagine and act out the imaginings. I guess you will never know exactly what happened during that New York trip, but it's probably safe to say that the whole deceit began with misplaced trust on your aunt's part, followed by the cons' isolating your aunt from her family and surroundings. I don't think your aunt met her match; I think the young couple's behavior was too substandard to your aunt's for any kind of comparison.

When this happened I had the urge to fight it, but was advised that in order to do this it would be necessary to have evidence that my aunt was incompetent when she wrote the new will. I couldn’t offer such evidence so I just let it go. But when I think of it, I am still upset. It is very easy to fall into the trap that she fell into because she was so needy of attention and the couple in question provided it for her.

The copyright for this content entitled "The Survivor and the Con Artist" has been specified by the contributor as:

This content may not be copied, distributed or adapted by anyone under any circumstances.