A Final Letter To Alicia

Dear Alicia,

I long ago decided that I'd rather risk never seeing again the photos from the albums you stole from Mother than to force myself to apologize to you for anything. You send us scraps, pretending that you "just happened to find some photos in a box"; when in actuality you hoard these items as though you actually owned them. Why do you do this? Because it's all the leverage you have left.

Inexplicably, you believe that if Kathy, Ruthie and I were to beg you to show for once just a little kindness, humanity, and sanity by laying off Ruthie altogether and ending your compulsive, self-righteous, and depraved desecration of our Mother's name and memory, we'd somehow instead be demanding (according to your progressively demented reasoning) that you betray some sort of sacred bond you've established with Daddy and Dana. A bond you fabricated with your pitifully deranged mind. A mind that, from all the evidence of years of witnessing your behavior, I'm convinced has uprooted itself from the restraints of humility, common sense, love, and decency to condemn the woman he loved with his whole heart--a woman, I should remind you, who COULD have and WOULD have left you NOTHING because of your treatment of her had she not loved you!

You've referred in another email to the Living Trust she left you as "my puny inheritance". I mean, really, Alicia. Did it ever occur to you what an ACT OF LOVE that Living Trust is? Mother played for me over the phone the two voice messages you left for her a little over a year ago, the same messages she had her lawyer transcribe later that week. After listening to them I thought for sure that she'd cut you out of her Will without a dime, and I told her so. Her response will surprise you, Alicia: she said she was more worried that you'd become completely mad; and that if she didn't provide you with an annuity, you'd breeze through everything she gave you before you hit 60. And then you'd end up with NOTHING and start putting the squeeze on your sisters and brother because you'd have no one else to turn to. And she couldn't let that happen. I mean, she was right, wasn't she? If history is anything to go by, you'd have spent every dime on the stupidest shit in the world in a matter of a few measly years; as though you were still living with Ted and had access to unlimited funds.

By your own twisted logic you've blamed Kathy for Mother's changing her Will. It was YOU, Alicia. YOU. YOU did it. After playing those messages for me, Mother said to me, "Will, I really think Alicia hates me!" I think Mother was the last person to realize it; everyone else had known for years.

If someone had treated YOU the way you'd treated Mother, do you really believe for a second that you'd have left them MONEY in your own Will? Of course not. You wouldn't dream of doing such a thing. And yet, you'll have money to live on until you die, thanks to the woman you despised.

One of your most oft-repeated claims in emails to us is that Daddy raised you, not Mother. Daddy and Dana. Daddy, Dana, and the Lathems. That your life is a personal tribute to his love and guidance. The reality is this: if you were to come face to face with Daddy right now he'd ask you by what twisted logic you've determined that he'd raised you to be the person you are today; because the evidence clearly shows that you've become--completely on your own--a hateful, spiteful disgrace to his name; a being without a shred of compassion; a self-indulgent, self-interested embarrassment. You cannot claim Daddy and Dana as a mentor, Alicia. Nothing of them has rubbed off on you.

GET HELP!

And you keep saying goodbye, Alicia. When, exactly, will you finally go
away?

Will