My Aunt Martha Clarke died on February 26, 2008. Martha was married to my mother's brother Finley. My Uncle Finley K. Clarke passed away on April 26, 2006. If you have been reading some of the articles I have published on Magic City News about my times living with and working for Martha and Finley, at their Katahdin Lodge and Camps of Patten Maine, it may come as a shock to you that Finley and Martha left me and my side of the family out of their substantial estate.
Fin and Marty died owing me money for services rendered to them as a bear hunting guide at their Katahdin Lodge. They also died leaving behind a lot of lies about me. They left some lies about my family too. Consequently, Fin and Marty caused me severe, personal, emotional trauma, pain and suffering.
They caused my parents severe emotional trauma, pain and suffering too, but my parents have passed away years ago. My parents and Fin and Marty were best of friends, up until a short while after my maternal grandmother died in 1980. This is all well explained in amongst my articles published here on Magic City News.
I have until July 1 or 2, 2008 to file a claim against Martha Clarke's estate. I have the paper to do so, but am not sure of what I may or may not put in a claim for. I intend to put in a claim for the money owed to me for the work I did for Martha Clarke. I also believe that I should be compensated for the emotional and personal damages, pain and suffering that Martha Clarke has inflicted upon me.
I need legal advice on what to do here. I need an attorney.
My problem in pursuing this matter is that I am a very low income, disabled veteran. I cannot afford any legal fees up front, nor can I travel to Maine and still pay my house rent.
I am neither a lazy nor aimless person and have been doing all the work I can, as a writer and photographer; much of my work exposes some of the very best of what Northern Maine is all about. It also shows and tells very interesting and entertaining history of what 1969 era Maine was like. And numerous Northern Mainers have said so in emails to me.
When I first began to write my Maine stories, I sent printed copies of the first three stories to Fin and Marty. I also sent printed copies of those three stories to many people in and around Patten Maine. The stories are: The House Fire, The Day I Fell In Love With Patten Maine, and The Rocket Scientist. The stories are on Magic City News, but I put links to them here to where they are published on other Maine web sites, in order for you to know how widely accepted and enjoyed my stories are--up in Maine, and around the World Wide Web.
Then copies of the very good stories Bananastein, Jungle Dirt, and My VW Bug Trip To Maine all went out to many Northern Mainers.
Unfortunately, my Aunt Martha and Uncle Finley refused to acknowledge those writings. Later, I wrote and sent Then They Own You to my aunt and uncle and many others in and around Patten. Then They Own You is about the near murderous end to my times working for and living with Fin and Marty at Katahdin Lodge.
It was several years later, when it all got published on the Internet. Nearly everyone who is in my stories, and their families, all know about my Internet published work.
Internet published stories and articles also include: The Easiest Way to Carry A Dead Bear or My Uncle Finley Couldn't Handle It, The Italian Nice Guy, Emails Exchanged Discussing The Italian Nice Guy, and then I wrote one about Driving Northern Mainer Style. Take a look at my Internet published works, and you will see how much my adventures in Maine mean to me, and what my Aunt Martha and Uncle Finley meant to me before they did me such tremendous injustice.
Eventually, I sent post cards to My Aunt Martha and Uncle Finley declaring what they owe to me. They still refused to respond.
The harder I worked at telling the true facts of the situation, the more Fin and Marty steadfastly refused to acknowledge my work, the worst it made me feel. The depression caused by this has been quite a destructive force in my life. I can't understand why my close family treated me this way. I don't know how anyone can treat anyone else this way.
Maybe I am a fool for believing that family is important. Am I?
The destructive effect of my depression has kept me from doing anything about this, until it is almost too late.
If they did not die owing me anything, if my stories are as full of lies as they declared, then why did considerably powerful and wealthy Finley and Martha Clarke not take legal action or write to me or call me on the phone to try to stop me from sending out many printed copies of my stories, from sending them post cards, and from publishing my work about them and me on the World Wide Web?
Because my stories are true, and they did die owing me more than their substantial estate could ever repay and compensate me for.
Does anyone anywhere know of any real wrong that my family did to cause my Aunt Martha and Uncle Finley Clarke to refuse to have anything to do with us for about the last two decades of Fin and Marty's lives?
What did we do to Finley and Martha?
That is all I want to know.
What was so bad about us that may have rightfully kept my mother from seeing her brother Finley one final time before she died? As she had once requested, via my sister and over the phone, of Martha - my mother's childhood and adult life friend, for nearly five decades - Marty.
Finley and Martha had to have told some of their friends and Martha's family members why.
Just tell me.
Email: ursusdave (at) verizon (dot) net
David Robert Crews Copyright 2008
www.katahdinlodge7photos.blogspot.com
