Bob CollinsThe weird family feud over gravestones for a woman in Montevideo has finally been settled.
It started when some of Sandra Sue Albrecht’s 11 children bought a headstone that their father, John Wendell Albrecht, 76, stole and put one he thought more appropriate in its place. His carried references from Revelations referring to the “fiery lake of burning sulfur.”
The kids sued, demanding their headstone be returned. They said their father has interfered with their ability to grieve Sandra’s death.
Now, a judge has ordered the original gravestone returned after two days of hearings that consisted of a clinic in what not to let happen to your family.
The West Central Tribune says the senior Albrecht considers himself estranged from nine of his children, refusing to refer to them by name in court testimony.
Lane Albrecht said he and his siblings are thankful the judge was able to see the spiritual abuse they suffered and “shed light on something that was dark for so long.” The justice they sought — and won — was to honor the memory of their mother, he said.
According to testimony at the trial, Albrecht prevented the nine siblings from having any contact with their mother and were not informed of her failing health. She died at home on July 24, 2016, at age 74 of cancer without having received any medical care.
Until fleeing on their own, the siblings testified that their father isolated the family on the farm he moved them to in the late 1980s or early 1990s. The children were not allowed any medical or dental check ups and carried cards stating they were not to receive medical care. Their mother had her last few pregnancies at this time, and did not receive any prenatal care during these pregnancies and had unattended births at home, the judge found.
The judge also ordered the father to pay $11,000 to each of the children who brought the suit for inflicting emotional distress.
