March 3, 2024
Please sign on to this letter to indicate your support for Mr. & Mrs. Standish Willis as they go back to court for the final guardianship trial on May 8th and May 9th, 2024 at 2pm CST, ( new date) at the Daley Center, 50 W. Washington St. Room 1809, Chicago. This case 23P308 is public.
Attention:
Judge Stephanie Miller
Cook County Court
Probate Division, Calendar 13
Daley Center, Rm. 1809
This statement is in support of Attorney Standish E. Willis’(Retired) care to be continued by his wife and 22-year partner Dr. Vickie Casanova-Willis without further interference by or additional concessions to the original Petitioner. This is consistent with the documented recommendation of his physician at Northwestern, filed during the year of court proceedings in this contested guardianship matter and ample evidence of his wife’s superior caregiving.
I have known both Standish and his wife since 2010 when I became a member of the same church family and became familiar with their work in the field of Human Rights through my own work as an Activist and Human Rights Defender. Since then, we have become friends and supporters of each other's work. Both are dearly beloved by our community and Standish has done significant work to highlight and defend against injustice in our community.
I am aware that this Community Treasure has been put at significant risk by a predatory petition to the courts by his adult child to have him removed from the care of his long term loving companion and wife; and that if this is granted it is my opinion that this will put him at significant risk to his health, quality of life and overall wellbeing as evidenced by a recent happening when this same person contrived to take charge of his care for a short period of time and caused detrimental results. Actions by this person since then have remained hostile and caused additional financial, mental, and emotional distress for both Mr. Willis and his spouse.
I am aware that just over one year ago as his wife Dr. Vickie Casanova Willis accepted one of only 25 invitations extended internationally from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to represent our community for 5 days in Geneva, Switzerland at the First Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, that one of his children redirected his wife’s care arrangements for her husband, removing him to her own home after previously indicating she was not available. In the short time in their custody, Standish was sent alone in an ambulance (reason is still unclear as to what happened to him at her home) to a hospital far from his neighborhood where his life was put at risk because no one accompanied him to the hospital nor visited until Dr. Vickie insisted that he not be left alone there.
This action bypassed his actual medical team as well as his wife because this offspring (and her aunt) disregarded his doctor’s orders for Alzheimer’s emergency protocols and endangered him by sending Standish alone with the paramedics without giving the necessary information for this community hospital which had no access to his records to know WHO they were dealing with and what his medical conditions were including his medication and who his guardian/wife and medical care team were.
His wife, who is his legal surrogate guardian by Illinois State law, was not notified timely and had to spend quite a number of hours trying to track down his location and make his actual doctors and home visiting care team aware of the situation so they could attempt to intervene and protect this vulnerable elder left to fend for himself in such a dangerous situation for an elder with Alzheimer’s. This gross neglect by his child, put him in a situation that almost killed him.
Caused him to be given medication he was allergic to (a different inhaler in the ER); and while in the hospital he lost 19 pounds in less than one week, was almost operated on for a procedure he did not need and was subjected to painful, invasive procedures that are contraindicated for people of his age (then 81) and diagnosis (terminal late stage dementia). All unnecessary due to his daughter’s negligence and willful disrespect of his wife’s position and her father’s rights.
In the meantime, the daughter who had removed him from the safe respite facility arranged by his wife and medical team, did not visit the hospital to inform them of his correct identity, that he was married and his spouse’s cell phone number, or his on call home hospice medical team’s number. At the very least, having effectively and dangerously overridden his actual care plan which calls for non-emergency room guess work on a vulnerable, terminal elder, this daughter could have provided the information to have him transferred to a major hospital near his home where all his records and doctors knew him, and would immediately contact his spouse for decisions.
In fact, this daughter claimed she couldn’t visit or stay with him in the ER (ultimately 3 days) because she had a minor child (then age 10) and work obligations. Things she should have known when she unilaterally decided to take custody of him behind his wife’s back, instead of simply driving to and visiting him as agreed, at the facility where his wife had already arranged his round-the-clock care.
This daughter and anyone else at her home at the time, deliberately created an unsafe situation for him and did not follow proper protocol in informing his wife/guardian in a timely fashion of what had happened to him and him being sent alone in an ambulance to a sub-par hospital, ER. These actions endangered his life.
When Standish and his wife were reunited 1 week later, he was virtually incapacitated and had to be spoon-fed for 2 weeks to try and regain his strength and weight. This also triggered his asthma, caused severe allergic reactions to skin and anaphylactic response and more. His wife had to engage additional aides and physical therapists to manage through the sudden and severe decline in his capacity, meanwhile his daughter eventually left his medications and clothes on the back porch, declining even to visit him at home to view the harm she had caused him.
During this time, we are told a petition to the court was quietly filed to change his guardianship with claims of him being a “vulnerable elder” being made in the petition by the same people who just endangered his life. The petition contained perjured statements including denying that he has a spouse, POAs, and claiming he needed this daughter to manage his financial and medical affairs implying he had no one and was all alone. Curiously, this was the visual created by sending an elder with Alzheimers alone in an ambulance to a location with no one to meet them who can say who they are, what happened, and that he has a spouse and medical team already.
Sounds very suspicious to me, since had his daughter shown some real concern, the hospital would never have been called as it violated his in-home emergency medical care plan and deliberately bypassed his wife until it was too late to keep him out of this tortuous situation of experimentation in a hospital with no information on him or his medical history. However, even had 911 been called instead of the protocol of immediate notification to his wife and on-call medical team that sees him multiple times a week, this random hospital they sent him to alone should have at least been informed of his accurate identity, that he is married and how to reach his wife immediately. The trauma Standish suffered would have been avoided.
Of note his wife was on the phone advocating all night from Switzerland to the hospital and his actual medical care team constantly, as soon as she learned the dangerous situation he had been placed in. She got them to arrange a sitter so Standish would not continue to remain alone all day and night. And ultimately to transport him back to the skilled nursing facility where he was to have been originally, with constant supervision and care from his own home visit medical team.
Since her step-daughter could apparently not overcome her animosity to Mrs. Willis (her father’s Primary care giver and spouse), at least she could have notified Standish’s on call medical team at the 24/7 hotline provided in advance by her stepmother, (Dr. Casanova-Willis) and he would have been immediately transferred to a hospital in his neighborhood where all of his records were, or to the original facility his wife had already made arrangements with which ultimately is what transpired after round the clock demands by his wife and hospice team, as he languished with unnecessary, invasive exploratory procedures and was given liquids only for days, weakening him to the point he could no longer even stand on his own.
Had common sense, compassion, and care been applied at any point by this adult child, his life would not have been endangered as it was. If this is an example of the care his children and remaining siblings will give him, it is clear to me and should be clear to the courts that all that would happen in their care or lack thereof, would further endanger or actually end this precious elder’s life.
I am asking the courts to look at the records, listen to the testimony of his wife, care team and doctors and see that moving responsibility for “his person” to anyone else would not be to this Community Treasure, Standish’s best interest and would in fact create severe harm to his health and to a couple’s relationship that has been so sacred to them for over 20 years. His wife married him “for better or worse, in sickness and in health, till death do they part.” She has committed her life and resources to make sure her husband is as healthy as possible, safe and secure, comfortable and happy in his declining years.
We all know how difficult caregiving can be and it is so admirable to find such a person as Vickie who treats Stan with such respect and concern and has taken excellent care of him as his condition has worsened. I ask that consideration be given to his wife and dearest love to continue to take care of Standish till his departure.
We, the community, are very concerned as we participate on many occasions to celebrate Stan’s birthday or other important events because Vickie keeps us informed. We look forward to additional years with him in her care so that this esteemed elder will have the quality of life we all wish for as we age gracefully around those who demonstrate love and care for us.
I may be reached at cecilejohnson50@gmail.com if you should have any further questions. I thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Cecile Johnson. M.A.
Certified U.N. Human Rights Defender
Chicago Il 60615
