Our 91 year old father passed away on September 21 after over 2 horrific years as a ward of the state of Maine.  Ours was a classic case of abusive probate guardianship.  He had a trust fund he worked his entire life for to protect our mother and himself.  His will and advanced directives were firmly in place and he was hoodwinked.  Of 7 children, one, who has been indigent from birth, started the proceedings.  He won at every step of the game and profited as a result.  The remaining 6 are heartbroken and exhausted from the fight to protect our father.  We lost and Dad lost.

His obituary is being published online tonight, September 28 at 12:00AM at sunjournal.com.  Obituaries.  George “Bud” Willette.  His is a heart wrenching story of a WWII Veteran who lost his freedom to the probate system.  Abuse after abuse from systems in place from Adult Protective Services to Probate Court to Attorneys and Judges feeding on the system caused this good man to be tortured to death. He was given a stomach feeding tube against his will and a serious C Diff infection followed. He had an inability to express himself after a stroke.

Five tortuous months later he was transported to a hospice facility, again against his will.  Dad spent 2 weeks there before he passed, under-rmedicated and humiliated.  We, his family were treat like elder abusers and were threatened to be thrown out by the guardian when he was in his final death throes. We witnessed being mocked by the nursing staff over our father’s dying body as they were changing his briefs for the last time, one hour before his horrific death.  He was completely lucid.   We were treated like criminals and he didn’t deserve to die this way.

We are an intelligent and articulate family, who has kept copious records.  We are passionate about this injustice, and have continued to be rational.  We failed at every turn in our effort to save our father.  Our compelling story is of mythic proportions.

His heart rending obituary will be published in the Lewiston Sun Journal tomorrow.

On Thursday, September 30, we will be asking in lieu of flowers, to send donations to aaapg.net.  Please be expecting some attention.

We will be contacting Janet Mills, the Attorney General in Maine, the overseers of the State Guardian Regulatory Committee, the organization in charge of nursing in the state of Maine and the legal department of the Androscoggin Hospice Center.  Janet Mills has created a task force to investigate elder abuse in the state of Maine and we intend to bring this case to her attention.

If there is any advice or help your organization might have for us, please contact us.

Your work is important; imperative.

We thank you,

Annie Albrecht