Kathie Gagne died 4,512 days ago.

Birthday Reminder
September 7th, 2012 @ 9:14 am

AmazonI got an email from Amazon.com this morning to remind me that mom’s 64th birthday is in fifteen days.

It included a link to her Amazon wishlist, of course; I forced her to create one in December of 2001. It is still there, though there are only a few things on it. I got her most of the things she added to it for Christmas or her birthday every year.

She loved to read Patricia Veryan books. My sister and I found dozens of them in her things.

Hounding the Doctor
September 7th, 2012 @ 6:24 am

At about eight o’clock on the morning of Wednesday, September 5th, 2012 I had forwarded an email from Dr. Cusack to Attorney Steven Phillips of Pincus & Currier, LLP and added this note:

Steve,

Do you have any idea what I should do here?

I am just completely at a loss at this point.

He replied on the morning of September 7th by saying:

Other than hounding the doctor, that’s about all I can think of.

I hope to speak to Dr. Wolf today. I will call you when I do.

At 7:07 AM I responded to Steve with:

Dr. Cusack was able to finally get Dr. Peele to sign the death certificate yesterday.

He said the cremation was to be performed yesterday and he would contact me today to confirm.

The End
September 6th, 2012 @ 9:45 am

Dr. Allen Cusack of Cusack Mortuary just emailed me:

Great News!!

The medical examiner’s office for Volusia County approved the cremation at 11:26 a. m. Like I said, it wouldn’t take long once we had a doctor’s signature. The delay has been Dr. Peele as everyone else has been ready to do our duties. The cremation has begun and we will work towards getting your mother to you as early as tomorrow. The death certificate(s) we will also mail out to you.

I replied to him at 9:55 AM:

Thank you sincerely, Allen.

I miss her so much.

Then at 10:21 AM he replied to me with:

You are more than welcome. I truthfully want to get her home to you in the physical manner. She will always be with you in spirit and in memory.

Good News?
September 6th, 2012 @ 7:51 am

Dr. Allen Cusack from Cusack Mortuary just emailed me:

Good Morning,

Good news…the death certificate has been signed. We are moments away from the approval needed to do the cremation and it will be done today, so that we can get your mother home to you as soon as possible.

I also spoke with Dr. Wolf and gave her the copy of what Dr. Peele said in order for her to complete her studies. To be honest, it was a good idea to have the autopsy done. His findings were probable causes, so in other words, he was not sure. I will let you know when everything is moving.

Employee Records
September 5th, 2012 @ 11:22 am

About a month after she died, I sent the following email to one of the places mom worked when I was a kid:

 
 

Ms. Morris replied just a few hours later:

 
 

I never heard from Ms. Kelly.

Holly Hill Police Department
September 5th, 2012 @ 10:56 am

I sent the following email to Donna Amaya of the Holly Hill Police Department on September 5th, 2012 at 10:56 am:

Holly Hill Police DepartmentDear Ms. Amaya,

I found your email address listed as the contact reference for the “Records Division” on the Holly Hill Police Department website.

My mother, Kathleen Anne Albanese Gagne, was a dispatcher for the Holly Hill Police Department shortly after we moved to Florida in the early 80s.

She passed away a few weeks ago, and I am so, so sad. I have been trying to build a timeline of her life which I can pass to my son one day so he will have some connection to his grandmother.

Is there any way you can tell me — or you can direct me to the person there who might be able to tell me — the dates my mother was employed there? I have to believe that there must be some sort of records about her. I am not asking for anything other than perhaps the date she started working there and the date she stopped working there.

If you can help me in any way I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you sincerely,

David Vincent Gagne

She replied at 11:49 am with a quick note:

Hi David, I have received your request and will do the best I can to help you.

Then at 12:44 pm I received this email from [redacted], an Administrative Assistant with the Holly Hill Police Department:

Hi David,

I am so sorry to hear about your Mother, I knew her pretty well back then! I also knew you and your sister when you were little (you lived in Holly Point Apts), I have 2 daughters [redacted] & [redacted] that used to play with you both back then, small world, isn’t it? [redacted] retired from here about 7 years ago too. I lost touch with your Mom after she left here (I’m sorry to say). I will get what ever info I can for you and get it to you ASAP, it may take me a few days tho. Again, I’m so sorry to hear about your loss.

At 1:06 pm she followed that with:

Hi again David,

I found our old file on your Mother and it even contains a picture of her! Her application lists former jobs too if you are interested. Why don’t you try to call me one day or if you are in the area, let me know when you can stop by, I’m usually here until 5pm daily.

I replied to her first email at 1:13 pm:

Dear [redacted],

I do remember that my sister Jennifer and I lived at Holly Point Apartments back then. The name [redacted] also rings a bell; I think my mom might have kept in touch with her after she left the police department.

The name [redacted] seems familiar to me as well, but I am sorry to say that I do not remember your daughters.

Thank you so much for any help you can give me. I miss my mom so much. She died on August 12th and I feel like I have not been able to stop crying since then.

And then at 1:18 pm I replied to her second email:

Wow!

Oh, my gosh, yes, I am very interested. Any photos, any information you have at all would be greatly appreciated.

I live in Los Angeles now. I moved out here in September of 2000. I was in Daytona to visit my mom for Mother’s Day this year, and my wife and my son and I were there for two weeks when she died, but I don’t think I’ll be back for a long time.

Could you mail me copies of anything? Or email? Anything like that? I am happy to pay for it. I am desperate to try to save memories like that.

Thank you so much!

I started crying when I read that you found a picture of her. I hardly have any photos of her from when I was a little kid.

At 1:23 pm she wrote:

David,

I found her file and will copy what I can for you. Was she ill? It’s so sad that we all lost touch over the years. She was hired here on April 6, 1979 and left on Feb. 12, 1981, so it was just under 2 years. I came here in [redacted]. I even have her ID picture.

I replied to her at 1:46 pm:

Thank you so much. I am trying to put together some sort of scrapbook for my son so I can tell him all about his grandmother some day. He just turned two […] after she died. She got to meet him; she came to visit us in Los Angeles right after he was born.

She had sort of a nervous breakdown just after Thanksgiving last year (2011). She was admitted to Halifax, but basically someone screwed up and thought that she had had a stroke, so they started giving her all kinds of drugs to keep her mostly stoned so she wouldn’t bother the other patients (because she kept flipping out and saying that she shouldn’t be there).
She really just needed to see a psychologist, and maybe some anti-depressants or something; she had lost her job in 2008 and had been down in the dumps about not being able to find a new job for so long.
It took me months of arguing and phone calls and stuff, because she didn’t have insurance, but I finally got them to stop giving her all those drugs, but the damage was already done. She was just scared to death all the time, and she eventually had a heart attack.
It’s really just awful and horrible, and I am so sad I don’t even know what to do. I miss her so much sometimes I can’t even breathe.

Anything you can get me would mean so much to me.

You can email anything to this address, or you can mail anything to:

[redacted]

I am happy to pay for any postage.

Thank you so, so much.

On September 26th, 2012 I received a manila envelope at my home containing:

I emailed [redacted] the next day, on September 27th, 2012, at 8:13 am:

I received the packet yesterday! Thank you so, so much. I can’t tell you how much this means to me.

I sincerely appreciate it.

She replied at 8:24 am:

Wow, that took a long time getting there but I’m glad you finally received it. I wish it could have been more for you but that was almost her entire personnel file. Best wishes to you and your family!

Still No Death Certificate
September 5th, 2012 @ 7:42 am

My mother died well over three weeks ago.
She has yet to be cremated.
This is absurd and disgusting and pathetic and insulting and I am really just at a complete loss at this point.

Here’s the email I just received from Dr. Allen Cusack of Cusack Mortuary. (Allen has been kind and gentle and caring throughout this entire process, by the way. I do not think he or his funeral home is to blame for anything here.)

My mistake. He 1 stated that he would sign the death certificate with no problem. Now, I’m wondering what delay is. I have called, the registrar for Volusia County has called and we have known gone over the extension dates, which means he could be fined for not signing it. The mortuary receives an email daily to remind us it needs to be signed which I forward to the health department and we clear ourselves, stating it’s his fault, not ours. If you can/will call the doctor, that may help. 2 So, all three parties are involved hound him, we may get success. 3

1 “He” is Dr. Peele, a doctor who saw my mom perhaps ten times during the last five weeks of her life, who approved the administration of Risperdal, who ignored my repeated attempts to contact him when I learned the nursing home was giving her this drug even though I had refused it on her behalf, who said he didn’t understand why my mother died and refused to sign her death certificate because of that, and who then agreed to sign her death certificate when the office of the Volusia County Medical Examiner refused to do an autopsy.
2 I called Dr. Peele at the only number I have for him — (407) 929-5611 — at 9:05 AM and left my name and number and begged him to please call me.
3 I called Detective Whittier of the Deland Police Department at 7:54 AM and left him a voice mail to express my frustration about this “process” and to ask him if he had any more information, and asked him to please return my call. Then at 7:59 AM I called Dr. Barbara Wolf — the Chief Medical Examiner of District Five, who performed the private autopsy on my mother on August 25th — and left her a voice mail asking if she could think of any reason why Dr. Peele would still have not signed my mother’s death certificate. I also forwarded Allen’s email to my attorney, Steve Phillips, and asked him if he had any idea what I should do now.

Dr. Wolf Email
September 4th, 2012 @ 4:29 pm

On September 4th of 2012, I sent the following email to the attorney, Steven Phillips:

EmailHey Steve,

When you get a chance, can you please share Dr. Wolf‘s email address with me?

I would very much like to give her access to the website, which has many resources she may find useful, including detailed descriptions of dosages, etc.

Thanks in advance,

David Vincent Gagne

Is there anything I can do?
September 4th, 2012 @ 12:08 pm

I sent this email to attorney Steve Phillips on the afternoon of September 4th, 2012:

EmailHey Steve,

Are you waiting for anything from me right now? Is there anything I can do at all right now?

Did you get a chance to read any of the articles I posted about the class-action settlement against Johnson & Johnson in regards to nursing homes administering Risperdal as an off-label chemical restraint?

Have you been in contact with Cusack Mortuary (about the death certificate) and / or Dr. Wolf (about the autopsy or medical records) since we last spoke?

Thanks,

David Vincent Gagne

Steve replied to me at 1:51 PM with:

I will be talking to Dr. Wolf in the next 24-36 hours and will call you after I do. I am out of town traveling for depositions until Friday so I don’t know exactly when I will be talking to her. I sent her the medication info you sent to me.

I wrote back and said:

Okay. Thanks, Steve.

Cremation Delayed
September 4th, 2012 @ 10:43 am

I emailed Allen at Cusack Mortuary to ask about the status of my mother’s cremation. She died over three weeks ago, so it is very frustrating that we are still dealing with this:

Dear Allen,

Can I get an update on the status of my mother’s ashes?
Was the cremation completed?
Have you heard from Dr. Peele and has any progress been made on acquiring the death certificate(s)?

Here is my sister’s address:

[redacated]

My address is:

[redacated]

I would like to request my mother’s remains be split four ways. My sister should receive one, and the other three should be sent to me.

That will allow us to have (1) some for my sister to do with as she wishes, (2) some for me to scatter into the Pacific, (3) some for our family to scatter into the Atlantic, and (4) some for me to save.

Thank you,

David Vincent Gagne

Allen replied to me about an hour and fifteen minutes later, at 12:05 PM, with the following:

Dr. Peele is still my hold-up. I have made numerous calls and am about to call our state registrar to make him complete his portion as he is the delay on the cremation as well. We will honor your request of the ashes once its complete. My sincere hope is that it takes place tomorrow (Wednesday). This is the only time in almost 20 years that I’ve had this long a delay with a doctor. I thank you for getting me his number – I spoke with him directly to see what is the problem. I apologize for not communicating better but am grateful to you for keeping in touch. Your mother is still safe, sound and again, no problems have surfaced with her physically. I would like to proceed with the cremation to complete my job, however, this Doctor is the only delay.

I responded to him about an hour and a half later, at 1:25 PM, by asking:

Hey Allen,

You said that you spoke with Dr. Peele directly, but you didn’t tell me what he said. Did he tell you why he hadn’t yet signed the death certificate? I really don’t understand what is happening.

Is there something I can or should do here?

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