Prestie vs Fried and Peggy says Goodbye to TC

Though Taylor Caldwell will live another five years, that is the last of this strange relationship between the agrophobic daughter, and the needy, famous author. The Denouement is four, unsent, messages to those Peggy claims were in her thoughts while writing the final stages of this memoir. The messages to her mother (TC) and father (Will Combs) ring true, and hopeful. Yet, Peggy ended not well at all, and likely her activities around this autobiography sustained her during her best years, from 1965 to 1980 when her life totally revolved around the sea voyages that TC bankrolled when her other daughter (Judy) would/could have nothing more to do with her. A tremendous amount goes on in this final chapter: technical (about legalities); non-cathartic (the newspaper and TV media playing the fight over TC to the hilt); and emotional (Peggy's final goodbyes to many). Therefore I have divided it into two parts. Previous to Part A, Robert Prestie has connived to marry TC, actually aided by Peggy who thinks TC needs someone to take care of her. Peggy comes to rue that decision. In Part A he takes full advantage aided by the lawyer Peggy refers to as Nameless. Assuming, however, Prestie cannot tell the future, it is hard to figure precisely what he was up to.

"Answer as a Man" was the book that concluded TC's career according to the list Ch10-TCBooks.html and its publication preparation is preceeding throughout the episodes of this chapter. It is clear here that Prestie hopes TC will recover sufficiently to write others.

Though Taylor Caldwell will live another five years, that is the last of this strange relationship between the agrophobic daughter, and the needy, famous author. The Denouement is four, unsent, messages to those Peggy claims were in her thoughts while writing the final stages of this memoir. The Part B html file will discuss those four messages in detail. Also, the periods unaccounted in Peggy's writing: The five years until TC's death, and the 22 remaining years until Peggy's death. Part A is a contest of wills between Peggy and Prestie, concluding with Peggy failing to stop Prestie from stealing TC, effectively incapacitated by a stroke, away. Here we conclude with details on the following two items:
  1. PRESTIE STEALS TC AWAY:
  2. PRESTIE/NAMELESS STIR THE POT FROM AFAR:
Part B will have a list of five more.

I. PRESTIE STEALS TC AWAY:
  1. Peggy, discussing the suit she was to press against Prestie, says she didn't recognize – as Gerry suggested she would – their lawyer Carl [Green]:
  2. To start an injunction the Fried side needed an unbiased witness to see TC's present condition, one acceptible to Prestie/Nameless. They chose Patty Radtke, without giving her adequate instruction.
  3. Peggy prepared a list of questions for TC, who still couldn't speak.
  4. Peggy puzzles over the up-coming move to Connecticut, whose ramifications become apparent later.
  5. A dramatic scene, June 12, 1980, in which Carl Green tries to stop Prestie from rolling TC away in an ambulance, over 10 days before the Connecticut home was to be ready.
  6. The events include airplane flights, timing of whether the plane was still in NY, and a channel 2 news interview with the ambulance driver. The injunction was after the fact.
  7. On June 13, no one in Peggy's sphere knew TC's location.
II. PRESTIE/NAMELESS STIR THE POT FROM AFAR:
  1. Reported in the Buffalo Courier Express (June 15, 1980): A tombstone intended for TC next to Marcus Reback is recut with Judy's name on it. But a more mysterious story ensues.
  2. June 16th: Gerry and Peggy – accompanied by reporters Susan Banks and Sheila Murphy – arrange a flight to see TC in Greenwich that evening. They do see her, and the next day's visit inundated Peggy's ability to keep the many medical events straight.
  3. Why Peggy claims she couldn't stay in Greenwich another day: She has four children and four grandchildren.
  4. Ground rules for Peggy's lawyers and doctors to visit TC impossed by Prestie/Nameless: Rules that prevent corroboration of results. This is before HIPAA. That lawyerly invention that countermanded the oft-said motivation to make patient information clear to medical "teams."
  5. Fried attorneys have put seven Buffalo news orgnizations on legal notice to preserve recorded material: TV stations WKBW, WBR, WIVB; and radio stations WEBR, WBEN, WGR, WKBW. Even the news seems to have taken sides. The issue was Prestie/Nameless claiming that TC had rejected Peggy and only reluctantly agreed to her visit.
  6. TC's stroke leaves her powerless to communicate clearly. So, this battle over 'gestures' is a farce played out between attorneys, with the hospital trying to avoid getting in the middle. The physician Peggy had relied on, Camp, has decamped early.
Camp, typical of doctor's world-wide, has assessed TC's present mental state from only one point of knowing her, using typical parameters for a typical patient of her age. Serena Williams – tennis star, and superwoman beyond redoubt – once responded to a reporting noting the unlikelihood of a quick comeback from an injury to win the US Open. She quipped that she wasn't a typical tennis player and sh then won the US Open. Like Williams, and emphasized by Peggy, did it make sense to judge TC's grit by that of a typical woman of her age? While the clear answer is ''No!'' it did not, TC never did make a comeback.