Kathleen A. Gagne

Kathie Gagne died 4,475 days ago.

July 29th, 2013 @ 9:44 am

I called the law office of Kelly Mathis — now K.B. Mathis, P.A. — on my way to work this morning, at about 7:40 AM PDT. Katie Perez, Kelly’s legal assistant, spoke to me for about fifteen minutes about my frustration with the slow pace of progress. Very soon it will be one year since she died and I am as heartbroken today as I was on August 12, 2012.

Katie told me that Kelly has indeed been sharing information about mom’s case with another lawyer (like he told me a few weeks ago) and that right now they are still trying to determine exactly what happened to mom. She promised to keep me updated.

From: Katie Perez, legal assistant to Kelly Mathis
To: David V. Gagne
CC: Kelly Mathis
Subject: Halifax Records
Sent: July 29, 2013 @ 07:59 AM PDT

I spoke with the representative in Release of Information for Halifax. She has everything she needs from us and is processing our request for the medical records. I will provide you a copy upon receipt. I am also calendaring to follow up in one week if they are not received before then.

Thank you,

From: David Gagne
To: Katie Perez, Kelly Mathis
Subject: Re: Halifax Records
Sent: July 29, 2013 @ 09:40 AM PDT

Thanks, Katie.

And thank you for listening to me this morning. I appreciate how much help you’ve been and your understanding.

Happiness

July 26th, 2013 @ 7:05 am

I do not know the exact date this photo was taken. I’m guessing it had to be sometime in 1974, because mom doesn’t look to be very pregnant with my little sister yet. It might be Daytona Beach but it might be some beach in Rhode Island; there’s no way for me to know. (I’d guess New England, though, because of the sweatshirt.)

I know how incredible my son makes me feel when he smiles and laughs, and so onto this photo I project that joy onto my mom. She must have been so happy at this moment.

I miss her so much.

Update: Dad emailed me to say that this photo was taken at Scarborough State Beach in Narragansett, RI in the winter of ’73 or ’75.

Update: I found another photo taken on this same day. On the back of the picture, in mom’s perfect handwriting, is written Nov. ’74. So that ends that mystery.

EMS Report

July 25th, 2013 @ 8:58 am

From: Katie Perez, legal assistant to Kelly Mathis
To: David V. Gagne
Sent: July 25, 2013 @ 08:09 AM PDT

Mr. Gagne:

Attached is a copy of your Mother’s rescue report received from the DeLand Fire Department for your review.

Thank you,

Katie Perez

attachment: Recs – DeLand FD.pdf

Notes:

The EMS dispatcher was called at 5:21 PM and they arrived on the scene just eight minutes later, at 5:29 PM.
From the report it’s clear that the employees at Woodland Terrace made no effort to perform CPR or otherwise attempt to save my mother’s life.
At 5:38 PM Ida Alvis called me to tell me they were rushing her to the hospital.
At 5:52 PM I received a call from Fish Memorial Hospital to let me know she had just arrived there in critical condition.
At 6:19 PM I received another call to let me know she had been declared dead.

Death Certificate

July 24th, 2013 @ 10:14 am

From: David V. Gagne
To: Katie Perez @ Mathis & Murphy, P.A.
Sent: July 24, 2013 @ 10:06 AM PDT

Katie,

I faxed a copy of my mother’s death certificate to your office this morning. Please confirm receipt and that it is legible / acceptable.

I’m also dropping a photocopy in the mail to your office today.

I’m fairly certain that I included a copy of this when I sent Kelly a copy of the autopsy results and other files about six months ago.

Please let me know if there is any other documentation I can provide or anything at all I can do.

Thanks,

From: Kelly Mathis
To: David Gagne
Sent: July 24, 2013 @ 10:36 AM PDT

I received you fax and it is legible.

Kelly

From: Katie Perez
To: David Gagne
Sent: July 25, 2013 @ 08:12 AM PDT

I appreciate your help. I will let you know if anything else comes up.

FL DCF

July 23rd, 2013 @ 9:49 pm

From: David V. Gagne
To: Kally Mathis, Katie Perez @ Mathis & Murphy, P.A.
Sent: July 23, 2013 @ 09:49 PM PDT

This is an awful story. But not a surprise to me. I called DCF because I was scared about my mom. The day after they visited her at Woodland Terrace, she was suddenly dead:

“2-year-old becomes FIFTH Florida kid to die since May after state child-protection had been notified. hrld.us/131rTKK“

Sent from my iPhone

Inventory

July 22nd, 2013 @ 1:45 pm

From: Katherine Perez, legal assistant to Kelly Mathis
To: David V. Gagne
Sent: July 22, 2013 @ 08:57 AM PDT

Mr. Gagne:

It seems from the file that your mother had no real estate and no motor vehicle. Please confirm that is the case.

I also need to know if your mother had any bank accounts or insurance policies at the time of her death.

Thank you for your attention in this regard. I know it is incredibly difficult to deal with all these administrative issues when you really should be focusing on your loss.

Katie Perez

From: David V. Gagne
To: Katherine Perez
Sent: July 22, 2013 @ 01:44 PM PDT

Katie,

You are correct: Kathleen A. Gagne owned no real estate and / or motor vehicles.

To the best of my knowledge, she had no insurance policies at the time of her death. (I’ve always found this very strange, because it seems like something she would have done at some point, but thus far I have found no evidence of any.)

My mother did have a bank account, but its balance was close to zero. Whatever funds were there at the time of her death — and I’d have to research to get you the exact number at this point — we completely depleted for medical bills, paperwork, etc.

Please let me know if I or my sister can be of any help.

Sincerely,

Yet Another Week

July 22nd, 2013 @ 8:41 am

At about eight in the morning on Monday, July 22nd, 2013, I called the law offices of Mathis & Murphy, P.A. to speak to Kelly Mathis about the Order to File Inventory I received at the end of last week.

Katie Perez, his legal assistant, answered the phone and said that she was — coincidentally — just about to email me regarding a different matter. She said that Halifax Hospital needed a copy of mom’s death certificate for some reason. I told her that, if given the chance, she should tell anyone possible at Halifax to go fuck themselves and / or drop dead. (She politely — and sympathetically — noted that that would probably be pointless.) I told her that I had certainly already sent her law firm a copy of the death certificate, but that I would send another copy as soon as I could. We spoke for a few minutes, but it was mostly more of me venting about the absurdity and stupidity of everyone in the state of Florida. I remember that I repeatedly used the words pathetic and insulting. After a few minutes I felt badly about ranting at her, so I apologized, did my best to make sure she understood I wasn’t upset with her, and she connected me to Kelly Mathis.

Kelly said that he didn’t know why the DeLand court would be requesting an inventory of mom’s estate, since we already made it clear to them that mom had no resources. He said it was just a technicality (basically) and that his office would handle it.

I asked him if there had been any progress in the last few weeks since I’d heard from anyone at his office and he told me that they had received a fax from Halifax asking for a “pre-approval of records”. (I wasn’t certain if this was the same request to which Katie was referring.) He said he understood how frustrating this whole process is.

I asked Kelly if he would let me speak to Katie again and then apologized profusely to her for my long-winded rant in her direction. She said she understood completely and wasn’t personally offended. Then I faxed them a copy of the Order to File Inventory.

Order to File Inventory

July 21st, 2013 @ 4:07 pm

On the afternoon of Saturday, July 20th, 2013, I received a letter from Diane M. Matousek, Clerk of the Circuit Court, Volusia County Seventh Judicial Circuit. (They’re on Twitter!) The letter was postmarked July 17th, 2013 and addressed to my home here in Los Angeles.

Inside was a single sheet of paper. The letterhead reads:

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT, SEVENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT
IN AND FOR VOLUSIA COUNTY, FLORIDA, PROBATE DIVISION

After that there’s a file number and a note indicating that this letter is in reference to the “Estate of Kathleen Gagne, Deceased”. It has printed “DIVISION: 10” under the file number.

ORDER TO FILE INVENTORY

THIS CAUSE came before the Court on its own motion and the Court finding from an examination of the file and records that more than sixty (60) days has passed since the Letters of Administration, and the Inventory is not filed as required by Probate Rule 5.340, it is therefore,

ORDERED AND ADJUDGED that David Gagne the personal representative(‘s) and Jill Bechtold, attorney of record, are hereby required to immediately file the Inventory or submit a petition and proposed order extending time stating with particularity the status of the estate, why an Inventory cannot be filed, and when it will be filed, within 30 days of this order.

Failure to file these documents within the time specified may result in an Order to show cause, if any, why this court should not; adjudge the representative(s), or counsel or both, to be in contempt of court; dismiss this case or remove either the personal representative, or counsel, or both; and/or assess a civil fine, as a result of their failure or neglect to adequately respond to the court’s order, noted above.

DONE AND ORDERED in chambers at DeLand, Florida this 16th day of July, 2013.

Above the words “Circuit Judge” appears to be the name C. MkFuin Smith, III ABU, but it’s a signature and I can’t really tell if that’s actually the name. In lowercase to the left and below that is an “sw”, which — if I recall anything from the 1970s — means that’s who typed the letter.

Then at the bottom the letter is notarized:

I HEREBY CERTIFY that a copy of this Order has been mailed to the personal representative(s) and the attorney of record this 17 day of July, 2013.

Diane M. Matousek, Clerk of Circuit Court

By: (signature) Joanne D. Brayton, Deputy Clerk

And there’s an old-timey stamp at the very bottom that indicates this was “FILED” 2013 JUL 16 PM 1:40 CLERK OF THE CIRCUIT & CTY.COURT VOLUSIA CTY.,FL CC50.

What does this mean? I have no idea at all. I don’t know what inventory I was supposed to file, and — as far as I know — there is no “case” right now in progress. Also troubling, of course, is that Jill Bechtold left the law firm of Mathis & Murphy, P.A. in April, and — again: as far as I know — she was not ever actually “the attorney of record”.

In just a few weeks it will be the one-year anniversary of our mother’s death.

Medical Authorizations Delivered

July 8th, 2013 @ 10:45 am

This morning I printed the two HIPAA release documents that Katie Perez emailed me last week. I signed them and had them notarized at the UPS Store down the street, then faxed copies to the law offices of Mathis & Murphy, P.A. and mailed them the originals.

I then emailed Katherine the following:

Sent: July 8, 2013 @ 10:47 AM PDT

Ms. Perez,

I printed, signed, and had notarized both of the PDF documents you emailed me on July 3rd.

I faxed copies of them to ###-###-#### and have mailed the originals to your Riverplace Boulevard office.

Please let me know if there is anything at all I can do to assist you.

Thank you sincerely,

She sent a quick reply about twenty minutes later:

Sent: July 8, 2013 @ 11:04 AM PDT

Thank you so much!

Re: Medical Authorizations

July 5th, 2013 @ 2:55 am

Late in the evening of the 4th of July, after all the fireworks, I replied to Katie’s email from the 3rd:

Sent: July 5, 2013 @ 02:55 AM PDT

Hello, Katherine,

I will print, sign, and return these to you as soon as I possibly can.