I seek prayer and counsel

[Originalist]

I truly seek the input of the AFF community on this issue. I apologize that this is not worded better.

My father passed away in June of last year at the age of 85. Several months before he died, I discovered my sister was secretly twisting his arm to cut me out of his will. Sources close to my father informed me that my sister had provided my father with papers to sign. I obtained a lawyer who counseled me to keep quiet for the time being. He suspected that my father was going to make the mistake of changing his will without changing the deed to the home, which would have made the new will void if he died. He and I checked the on-line county records regularly to see if there were any changes to the deed. Interestingly, my dad died suddenly in his sleep before he could file any of the papers my sister had given him, and I thus remained the executor. Not so surprisingly, she smuggled the papers out of his house before I could find them, which was illegal.

Due to the horrible circumstances in my life at the time, I chose not to confront my sister (Heavy load at graduate school, 8 weeks with shingles, knee surgery with 6 weeks on crutches, 1 week in the hospital over a tick bite reaction). Sadly, she lied about my wife as her means to convince my dad that changing the will was necessary. She invented a wild fantasy that my wife was going to divorce me after my dad was gone and give all of his possessions to her family in Mexico. I can no longer withhold expressing disapproval for what happened, especially since my wife and her family were so disrespected.

Our family was always unusual. It was like living in the Bizarro world where everything was opposite. The youngest child was ignored while the middle child was spoiled. In fact, a pastor once told my mom that my dad should not have had sons as having another male in the home seemed to make him feel threatened. He hardly spoke to me until I was a Sophmore in college.

My sister was always coddled. Dad supplemented at least 30% of her income her entire adult life (she’s 54). She has never married or gotten any serious college education. I took a total of 300 dollars from my dad in my entire adult life. Yet, he told friends that made me the executor of his estate because he knew my sister could never handle the responsibility. But I knew when he made the will 15 years ago that she would never settle for a 50-50 split.

I do not seek revenge. I have continued to exhibit a Christian attitude when she comes around. She has no clue that I am aware of any of this. But moving forward, especially as we enter into the phase of the final disposition of my dad’s home (both our names have been on the deed for many years), she needs to understand that treachery will not be tolerated. Unless God does a real work in her heart, I expect her to simply refuse to discuss the matter, much less show remorse. I've often wondered if she realizes that God took my dad to prevent him from making a horrible mistake on her behalf.

Your prayers and counsel are appreciated.