Faery Tales Can Come True

Butterfly in plumbago along the fence

A very sweet and lovely 78 year-old  lady at the gym was beginning to act strange.

She had been joyous presence in our group. She'd bring in pictures of her triplet great grandchildren, her eight children, and twenty or so grandchildren and great grandchildren to show us. She had something wonderful to say about anyone whose name was mentioned.

One day, she stared into space instead of sharing her continual gleeful laugh during the workout. She left right away with a stoney glare. I was genuinely concerned, but my intuitions were telling me that she would be okay - just had something important to take care of.

The next day she came back. I could feel her lighter energy, but there was still a disconcerting look on her face. So, I struck up a conversation with her, asking her how she was. Needing to share, she  proceeded to blurt out what she had just been through. It was like listening to a TV detective show melodrama.

When she left the day before, she was on her way to court. A son of her fiance had filed charges against her for illegal trespassing and she had been arrested and released on bail. She had hired an attorney and this court date was ten months later.

Her fiance had been drugged, placed in a memory loss ward in the mental wing, and the son made himself executor of the estate and power of attorney.

The 80-year old man had not been ill at all. He was CEO of his a very successful business, had lost his wife to cancer, and was just getting back into the swing of things with his engagement to this lovely lady.

At the court date, charges were dropped, as might have been expected, and she did not have to pay a fine nor go to jail because she was not able to pay.

The judge turned to the son and ordered him to show proof of his side of the story within a certain number of days. His father had retained the same attorney, who just won the first half of his case. The attorney had already been working on the release of the man from his illegally coerced confinement.

"These things just don't really happen in real life," I found myself saying. But, they do, and this did happen.  And once again, as in faery tales and sometimes detective stories, there is a great possibility for a happy ending ever after. We are waiting for the outcome, but feel certain that the two lovers will be able to dance on into their real life faery tale.


I have no idea why a son would do that to his father. Do you? Will this couple get to live happily ever after?