I decided to give myself a little break from Kooki, so I let a month go by before I tried calling her about the deed. After all that had happened, it was such a relief not hearing from her for so many days. But, at the end of that month, I knew that I was going to have to “put on my big-girl panties” and deal with Kooki, so I gave her a call. The first couple of times I called, Kooki answered and assured me that she was going to “take care of it in the next day or so”. Then she would again launch into her “let me help you buy some more properties” routine. I told her again, VERY EMPHATICALLY, that I would NOT be buying anymore rental properties. I just wanted her to deed that property over like she was supposed to have done months ago.
Well, I guess when Kooki finally realized that I was serious about not buying any more properties with her, she started avoiding my calls. I would call and leave messages with the people at her house who answered, but she never would call me back. One time, her daughter answered the phone. I asked to speak with Kooki and she replied, “Sure, here she is… Mom! The phone is for you!” I heard, with my own ears, Kooki ask her, “Who is it?” The daughter came back on the line and asked, “Who is calling?” I told her who I was and sat and listened to a bunch of whispering between Kooki and her daughter before the daughter came back on the line and said, “Um…. She’s not here.” (REALLY??!!!!) I said, “But you just told me she was there.” She replied, “I’m looking all around, and I don’t see her now.” Well, I was CHAPPED, to say the least. I told the daughter, “Look, I am a lot of things, but STUPID is NOT one of them! I heard you call her to the phone and I heard her ask you who it was! You tell your mother that I want to talk to her!” She replied, “Well, I can’t tell her because she’s not here right now.” I guess that proves that a lying parent will most likely produce lying children. I hung up the phone.
I worried over that deed for quite a while, and continued trying to contact Kooki. But, once I had released the security deed on her daughter’s property, Kooki became a ghost, a vapor in the wind. Since she wouldn’t answer or return any of my my calls, I decided to send her a letter, certified mail, return receipt requested, so I would at least have proof that she received it. Well, about three weeks after I sent it, the Postal Service returned it to me with a stamp showing that they had tried to deliver it to Kooki on three different occasions, but each time, it had been left unclaimed.
After we moved to Alabama, I decided to give it one more try. By now, I was just plain MAD about it and the way she had treated Ken during his illness and me after his death. I wanted JUSTICE. So, as many justice-seeking individuals do, I retained an attorney in Ringgold to “go after her” for me. The attorney assured me that I did, indeed, have a case and we could probably even have Kooki arrested and charged with fraud. I told him all I wanted was for Kooki to deed over the property. The attorney had me sign a client agreement and accepted a very expensive retainer from me, and promised to get started “right away”. He wrote Kooki one “lawyer letter”, you know… the kind that is meant to scare people into doing what you want but doesn’t really require the lawyer to do much work. Very shortly after writing the letter, the attorney promptly closed his practice and disappeared! Call me crazy, but I believe there should be a law that says if an attorney is being investigated by the state Bar Association and is facing possible disbarment, he should NOT be allowed to accept retainers from new, unsuspecting clients!
So, there I sat, not one bit closer to getting Kooki to deed over the property and now, I was out quite a bit of money that I really couldn’t afford to spend in the first place. I considered for a week or so, what my next step should be. I realized that I didn’t really care about the property as much as I cared about the heartless way Kooki had treated us. And if I didn’t turn that loose, it would keep on hurting me and my kids. I just needed to be finally DONE with Kooki. I needed to put her completely in my past. So that is what I decided to do.
As I said earlier, Ken's sister, Cindy, was “managing” the properties for me. The next time I went up to Ringgold to see her about the business, I gathered up all the paperwork I had on that property. I gave it to Cindy and told her that if she and/or her daddy wanted to pursue it, they could have the property, IF they could get Kooki to deed it over to them. But, since there wasn’t one scrap of paper that said the property legally belonged to me, I was through paying taxes on it and paying her to maintain it. I told Cindy as emphatically as I could, “If you want this property, you REALLY need to get that deed taken care of. If you don’t, Kooki will come back one day and bite you in the butt with it!” I will never forget her response. She looked at me with a smirky little smile and said, “I’m not the one who has a problem with Kooki. You are! I don’t think Kooki would do me that way.” I was incredulous! I guess I should have tried harder to convince her of Kooki’s true character, but I just needed to be through with the whole MESS. So I said, “Okay… whatever you say.”
THAT is where this story should have ended. I should never have had to even conjure up one little memory of all that woman had put us through. And for about four years, that is how it was. Cindy had found someone to buy the property on a rent-to-own contract, and they had been living there for at least two to three years, so I assumed that Cindy had worked everything out with Kooki and all was “nifty”. Truthfully, I didn’t really care… it was behind me and that was where I intended that it would stay.
Then, one day last year, out of the blue-clear sky, I received the strangest thing in the mail. The envelope was addressed in a handwriting I had never seen before and the return address was Cindy’s first and last names, but it had a middle name too. Only thing was, it was not her right middle name. I was suspicious before I even opened it, but what was inside made my “uh-oh” quotient go way up. It was a copy of a letter from a GA attorney’s office, written to Cindy, saying that “the list Melinda has is VITAL to your case. You have to contact her and get that list.” HUH?! What list? What case?!
My first instinct was that the letter was from Kooki. She had contacted me all those years ago after receiving that “lawyer letter”, again promising to deed over the property if I could get her a warranty deed. I sent her one, but once she got wind of the fact that my attorney had skipped town with my retainer and I couldn’t afford to pay for another one, I guess she didn’t see any need in completing the deed like she had promised. That was the last time I had heard from Kooki. Now, I was afraid that this letter was actually something she had fabricated to see if she could find out what I had done about the property and if I was still inclined to pursue it legally. The only thing that made me think that it was, in fact, from Cindy, was that it had a money order for a house payment in it. (I made the mistake of agreeing to hold a mortgage to sell Cindy the house we had been living in when Ken died. You would think, that since my children are her dead brother’s sons, she would be real good about paying on time. Yeah, well, not so much. She pays when she feels like it, usually only when she needs something from me.)
I started trying to call Cindy. But none of the numbers I had for her were good anymore. I finally called the attorney’s office that was listed on the letter. I told them who I was and that I had received copy of a letter they apparently wrote to Cindy. I knew, due to attorney/client confidentiality, they weren’t allowed to tell me if they were, in fact, representing her, but I told them if they were her attorneys, they needed to contact her and tell her to call me and tell me what in the world was going on!
I didn’t hear back from anyone for about a month and a half, so I breathed a little sigh of relief. But then, I got a phone call from Cindy (at work, mind you) that she REALLY needed my help. She needed me to execute a deed and bill of sale for that property into her name. It seems that Kooki, for whatever reason, suddenly remembered (after four whole years) that she still held a deed to that stinking property in her name. And, true to her sleazy nature, she went and filed an eviction on the tenants and told Cindy she was claiming the property.
I was just as confused as I knew how to be. I said, “I thought you already took care of that matter after I gave you all the paperwork.” “No”, Cindy said, I never figured Kooki would do something like this ( ‘scuse me… but didn’t I TELL you she would?), so I just went ahead and rented it out.” (I know how utterly ridiculous that sounds, but Ken’s entire family has a dominant “ignore it and it will go away” gene. They will do the least they can to handle a situation and just hope no one kicks about it. Ken, in many instances, was the same way and it drove me CRAZY!)
So… Kooki was making a claim, not only on the property, but she was also claiming all the rent Cindy had collected in the intervening years, and Cindy was begging me to “help” her. SIGH… it was like a recurring nightmare. Cindy told me that their first court hearing was the following Friday and she really needed me to come and do the deed and bill of sale before then. I told her that I work for a living and if she needed a deed and bill of sale signed by a certain time, she would have to come to AL so I could sign them. She told me I had to come up and sign at her attorney’s office so they could be notarized. I was, at that time, working at a law firm. I told her that we had a whole houseful of notaries I could sign in front of if she would just send me the documents. She said that she was afraid they wouldn’t get back to her in time if she sent them and I sent them back, so I told her again, that if she wanted me to sign the documents she would have to make the trip to AL. She finally agreed and told me what day she would come. I gave her directions how to get to the law firm where I worked.
Now, I could clearly see where this was heading. If Cindy was going to court over a piece of property I said she could have if she could straighten it out with the woman who bought it through a business deal she had with my husband before he died, they were going to want me to come to court as a witness. Well, I would rather bed down with a rattlesnake than ever have to see Kooki again and be involved in a mess I had washed my hands of years ago. So I prepared an affidavit detailing all the facts I knew about the case. On the day Cindy came down with the deed and bill of sale, I had another of the legal assistants “swear me in” so I could swear to the facts in my affidavit. I told Cindy that it was the only sworn testimony I intended to give and when her attorney mentioned I would make a good witness for their case that my answer was BIG FAT NO!!!
That should have ended it, but NOOOOO, no such luck. A few days later, I got a call from the attorney representing Cindy saying how since Ken was dead, I was the only one who knew the facts about the agreement he had with Kooki. Said it was “imperative” that I testify as a “fact witness” in the case. I told him that I did not intend to testify and that I had sent a sworn affidavit that should be sufficient. He snapped back at me that “they won’t be able to cross-examine an affidavit and if you don’t agree to come and testify, I will simply subpoena you and you will have to come." GRRRRRR!! I was FUMING!!! I did NOT appreciate being threatened, but neither did I want to find a Catoosa County deputy on my doorstep one day waiting to haul me to Ringgold, so, through gritted teeth, I “agreed” to testify. (The crazy thing about it, after I finally agreed, every time the attorney talked to me, he went on and on about how much he appreciated me agreeing to testify for them… thanked me profusely over and over and OVER. Every time he said it, I wanted to scream at him and say, “I DIDN’T AGREE!!! YOU THREATENED ME, YOU BIG DUMMY!!!)
As with most court cases, this one was set and continued several times before it was finally set on the special docket so that it would, indeed, be heard. I guess Cindy didn’t think it necessary to give me a “heads-up” about court dates, because I got a call from her attorney one day, to "remind" me that I needed to be there one day LATER THAT WEEK! He said he would call me at home that evening and discuss my testimony. Well, I rearranged my schedule so he could call, and guess what? He DIDN’T call. He called me the next day (while I was at work), apologizing all over himself and begging me to give him a few minutes right then so he could “prepare” me to testify. I told him everything I had already sworn to in my affidavit. Then he asked if I had a picture of Ken I could bring. I told him I had a portrait, but it was really BIG. He said to go ahead and bring it. Then he asked me if I had a picture of Ken when he was really sick, maybe right before he died. I knew what he was trying to do… he wanted to show the judge that Ken was a “real” person. And he also wanted to show the judge the frail, sick man that Kooki had taken advantage of in his last days. It turned me sort of sideways to think of exploiting Ken’s memory that way and I told him so. He assured me that he would be respectful to Ken’s memory. I told him I would think about it.
My boys didn’t think that I should go to court by myself. They knew how much the subject of Kooki and the thought of having to see her again tore me up and it was precious of them to want to protect their Mama that way. Jesse had a test in school on the court date, so Benjamin decided to go with me. I have to admit that having him with me was a great comfort. I did have to explain to him, though, that the opposing side would probably say things about his Dad that would not be complimentary, but that he could NOT react negatively in the courtroom. I also told him that if Kooki tried to talk to me, he would need to stand in between us, because I didn’t know what I would do. Now, I am NOT a violent person. I will go WAY out of my way to avoid confrontation of any kind. But when it came to Kooki, in my mind, I could see myself climbing on top of her and ripping out great hunks of her hair. That scared me. And I think it probably worried Jesse and Benjamin a little too.
By the time we got to the courthouse that day, I was sick to my stomach and my jaw ached from gritting my teeth. We had to sit out in the hallway until they called me in to testify, so that just gave me more time to dread the whole thing. After court had been in session about 45 minutes, Cindys’ lawyer came running out and said that Kooki was denying that she had ever seen the letter I sent her and that her attorney was arguing for a continuance so they could decide how to proceed. I looked at him and shook my head and said, “She DID NOT see that letter. That’s the one she never claimed at the Post Office, remember?!” He blinked at me a couple of times and said he’d be back in a few minutes. When he came back, he told me that the judge had granted the continuance and I would have to come back when the case was reset. I had a come-apart on the poor guy. I said, “I took a whole day off from work, my kid took a whole day off from school, we got up at crack-thirty in the morning, drove two hours in the dark FOR NOTHING?!! You have GOT to be kidding!!” I knew it was beyond the attorney’s control, but I was mad, nonetheless. He apologized over and over and said, “They are probably just trying to wear you down so you won’t come back next time. But you know how important your testimony is to us, right? Cindy doesn’t really have a case unless you testify!” (I guess he was forgetting again, that he had threatened me with a subpoena if I decided not to testify.) I looked him square in the face and said, “Don’t you get it? I am NOT here for Cindy! I am here for Ken and I am here for the truth!” Cindy and her attorney were both a little stunned at my reply. I muttered to them as I gathered up my things, “Somebody call and let me know when this thing is reset.” Then we left. Instead of going home relieved that it was finally all over, I went angry and worried about having to come back AGAIN.
Cindy called me right before Christmas and told me that the case was reset for January 13th. This time, Jesse would go with me since Benjamin had already missed a day of school. So, I got to go into “worry overdrive” all through Christmas. On court day, Jesse and I got up and made that two hour trek in the dark again. When we got to the courthouse, as they were scanning our stuff, the deputy asked whose courtroom was I going to. When I told him which judge it was, he said, “I think he’s already finished for the day in Catoosa County”. I was working on another come-apart when Cindy’s attorney rounded the corner. It seems that there was a conflict on the judge’s calendar for that day, but the judge agreed to go ahead and listen to my testimony, seeing as how I had now made TWO trips from AL.
I’ll admit that I was very nervous when they called me into the courtroom, but in addition to the nervousness, I was “loaded for bear”. It is hard to explain, but I felt this weird sense of relief and power just walking in to face that woman. Of course, I didn’t really get to “face” Kooki because the whole time I was up there, she refused to look me in the eyes. My time in the courtroom basically went like you see it on TV. They swore me in and I took the stand. By the way, you know that part of the oath that says “I swear to tell the whole truth”? Well, lawyers don’t really want you to tell the whole truth. They only want you to tell the part of the truth that makes their side look right. They like to ask very specifically focused, narrow little questions and then want you to answer with only “yes” or “no” and they do NOT want you to elaborate.
Kooki's attorney was a little combative with me, but it was his job to be that way. He kept objecting to my answers because they were “hearsay”. On TV, there is always an exception to the hearsay rule when a person is dead and can no longer speak for himself. Well, apparently, in Catoosa County GA, at least on that day, there was no such exception. So, any of my testimony that came from discussions that occurred between me and Ken were objected to. Some of the objections were overruled by the judge, but several, on some pretty important points of the case, were sustained. Kooki's attorney, as I had suspected he would, tried to make it look like Ken was the one who had been doing things wrong, not Kooki. He then even tried to make it look like I had not acted appropriately in my capacity as the Executrix of Ken’s estate. He was just trying to make me mad, which he did, but I did my best to remain calm on the witness stand. I did get it on the record, though, that Ken WAS an honest man and in my experience with Kooki, she had NEVER been the least bit honest. I got it on the record how Kooki had taken advantage of my sweet husband when he was vulnerable and dying and how she had further taken advantage of the whole situation by preying on Ken’s family after he died. I spoke truth in Ken’s defense.
One thing happened that kind of gave me a little chuckle. You know the saying that a lawyer should never ask a question he doesn’t already know the answer to? Well, that happened to Kooki's lawyer, TWICE during my testimony. The first time, he asked me who was present on the day that Kooki signed the paper stating that she had been paid in full and had no further claims on the properties. I answered truthfully, that it had been me, Kooki, and the man she brought with her, the one she called her “new business partner”. The attorney said, “Who else was there?” I said, “Do you mean in the house, or in the room where the transaction took place? My kids were probably in the house, but they weren’t in the room.” He replied, “I MEAN, who else was there besides you?... Kooki?... the man?..., Kooki's daughter?...” I said, "It was only me, Kooki and the man.” He ran back around to his notes and shouted at me, “Are you NOW testifying that Kooki’s daughter was not there?” I replied, “I never testified that she was there because she WAS NOT.” Evidently, Kooki had testified that her daughter had been there, because when I emphatically stated that she had not been there, heads popped up and everyone’s eyes, including Cindy’s and her attorney’s, got BIG with surprise.
The second time my testimony surprised the Kooki's attorney was right before he released me. I think he was going to try and make something out of the fact that I had worked as a legal assistant. He asked, “Do you work now?” “Yes”, I said. “What type of work do you do?”, was his next question. “I am a secretary”, I replied. He started nodding his head vigorously and said, “And where is it that you are a secretary?” When I answered, “At a Baptist church”, he looked like his head was going to explode! He started stuttering and yelled, “I thought -- didn’t you work at a LAW FIRM?” I answered in the affirmative. He asked me what was my job at the law firm. I told him I had been a legal assistant. He nodded his head again, but you could tell “Baptist church” had not been the answer he had expected to come out of my mouth. I think the “deal” he was going to try and make about me being a legal assistant sort of fizzled.
I have to say, after dreading the whole thing for such a very long time, the court experience itself was a little anticlimactic. Maybe if they had gone ahead and heard the rest of the case that day and it had been resolved, I would feel differently. But, at this point, I don’t really even care how the case turns out. It would be a shame if Cindy loses the property that I know rightfully belonged to Ken, but I told her she should take care of it and she didn’t. It might just have to be a hard lesson learned for her. And, if the judge awards Kooki the property, she may laugh at me and celebrate for a little while, but I know another Judge who knows the truth and will render His verdict in due time. The one thing I do know for sure is that I am finished letting Kooki have one more tiny second of my time and my thoughts. She is in God’s hands now, and He will deal with her as He deems fit. I was blessed to have the opportunity to stand up for my sweet husband and that is enough resolution for me.
