I’m not 100% certain of all the details surrounding the story, but I know mom basically stopped making car payments on her Ford and they repossessed it. I am pretty sure — if I remember correctly — that I am the one that insisted she stop making payments on it, because she simply didn’t have the money to afford it and she wasn’t driving because she had no car insurance.
She had gotten in a car accident in late 2009 and that was when I should have — but did not — realize that something was dramatically and terribly wrong with her. She had been complaining about problems with her memory even before the accident, but things started to really go downhill after it. And at the time of the accident, I later learned, she had already let her car insurance lapse. It ended up being a disaster because the guy who hit her (or the guy she hit, depending on which story you believe) kept trying to get her to pay for his repairs.
Eventually Ford did repossess the car, I think. Although I don’t know. Maybe it’s still sitting abandoned in a parking lot of one of the two or three apartment complexes where she lived before she was institutionalized. But they were also understandably tenacious about attempting to collect on the debt. There were many threatening letters and phone calls, and I know she was scared that she was going to be sent to jail.
This morning, while looking through the four notices listed below, I found a phone number for the law firm representing Ford. I called and talked to a man who gave me a fax number and asked me to send him a copy of the death certificate. I did that a few minutes ago.
Subpoena Duces Tecum for Deposition in Aid of Execution
August 15, 2011: This document pretty sternly “commands” that mom appear for a deposition on October 26, 2011 at some law office in Daytona Beach, and that she bring with her all of her bank statements for the previous twelve months, copies of her state and federal tax returns, pay stubs, etc. It also notes that if she fails to appear she would be held in contempt of court. (She did not go to the deposition.)
Sheriff’s Return of Service
October 7, 2011: This is a copy of a log officially stating that Ben F. Johnson, SHERIFF in Volusia County, supports the claim that Process Server Tammy Baldwin served mom the Subpoena / Duces Tecum for Depo in Aid of Execution on October 4, 2011 at 10:30 AM.
Certificate of Non-Appearance
October 27, 2011: The Registered Merit Reporter and Notary Public certified that mom failed to appear at the deposition on October 26th.
Motion for Contempt
November 22, 20122: This was filed against mom for failing to appear for a deposition regarding her debt with Ford Motor Credit Company, LLC. It requests that mom be sentenced to five days in county jail unless she pays $200 in fees, plus “any other fees”, and complies with the subpoena to be deposed. I have no idea if she ever saw this letter; but it was only a few days after this that she was found crying and lost in the parking lot of her apartment complex. The manager of the apartment complex was unable to contact me or my little sister and so she called the police, who took mom to the hospital, who sent her to Stewart-Marchman ACT, where the onslaught of psychopharmaceuticals began, from which she never recovered.
Fuck.