Big thank you to all family and friends who have supported my brother and me through this terrible time. Special thank you to Jane Alsip and Jo-Carroll Fowlkes Leslie for photos, music, and videos. Thank you to Sandra Leon Ojeda and Brandon Roberts for putting up with my brother and I, everyone who knows us will understand that :) . Thank you to Pastor Burkee for a wonderful service. Finally thank you to our mom Diana Rowlett for all her unwavering support. Without her the day would not have been possible. She not only helped organize the service she paid for a large portion of it for Johnny’s children, THEIR children. Many people have wondered why we were not allowed at my dad’s wife’s service. This is the most factual, none emotional response I can give. (But you know me). On Tuesday 9/9 Cindy was discussing, with my brother, her desire to put our father in a home. This was in front of our father! He put his head in his hands and started crying. My brother said he didn’t care how bad our dad got he wanted him to live with him so he could take care of our dad. She said the same thing she’s always said “I have power of attorney, I make the rules and you can’t have him.” Her decisions voiced in front of our father gave him no reason to want to live any longer. Then there was the urn selecting experience. She repeatedly bragged about how she and Johnny had never had secrets, but when my brother, rightly or wrongly, informed her of their afternoon in a Mexicali strip club last year she, learned differently. Also she was informed that though the years my mom and my dad had consistently been in contact. All those phone calls to my brother and I weren’t always to us. He knew when she was available. On the hardest day of our lives when both John and I needed our mom with us Cindy refused to budge and once again reminded us she had power of attorney, she was in control and she made all the choices and if our mom showed up at the service it would be shut down even after begging and saying that our mom would sit in the back and leave before the service was over. (This was even against my brother John’s wishes because he wanted his mom sitting with him in the front for support). Our father had always made it clear to us that everyone was welcome to his funeral and he and our mom had been to both my boys births, baptisms, and countless birthday parties without any problems. There were things left to my brother and I in our father’s will that, again, Cindy said we couldn’t have now because she had the power of attorney and wouldn’t honor our father’s will so my brother went over to their house to get them. Many of our father’s things were already outside in garbage bags and the house and his car had already been sold. This was only 3 days after his death!! So much for a grieving widow. My brother felt he had to break into my dad’s airplane/tool shed to get those things. She called the police and had my brother handcuffed and lied in the official police report. My brother finally was allowed to get what he could in one trip with police assistance. What he couldn’t take that trip had to be left behind because Cindy sold the house with all contents included! This included our grandfather’s tools, compressor, and fishing poles. The police were able to go back and retrieve a few photos and other small things from the house but I was refused the one thing I wanted most which was a lock of my Daddy’s hair for a religious box I bought especially for that. My last conversation with Cindy ended with her saying the services her cancelled and hanging up then blocking me from my Daddy’s Facebook page. Go check it out and see if she is honoring our father. She deleted any trace of our existence from that page. I never got one call after that saying she was having a service. Because of this we had to plan our own. We had a wonderful celebration of his life. Finally we know our father and believe he knew who would find him and we hope that person is forever haunted with her final images of him.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 05:31:16 +0000