In the next week, Pop complained of chest pains and Mom convinced him he should see a doctor, he agreed to an appointment.
Then one morning she took Grandma to her birthday celebration, a picnic given by the Red Cross ladies. When they got home they found Pop still in bed but he had died from a fatal heart attack.
When he died he was in the process of selling part of the twenty acres the ranch was on. They were beginning to have financial problems. A lot of property but short on cash.
Al and Ruth came to live with Mom and Grandma. Grandpa Farne had died in 1953.
Al used poor judgement in handling the estate, he began putting mortgages on the properties as the years went by and as money was needed for Grandma to go into a nursing home and then for my mother. Unfortunately, the man he trusted, a lawyer, was putting these mortgages in the names of his relatives.
Al managed to hold onto three properties and the ranch. When Mom died she left a house for each of her children and Al inherited the ranch. But he knew he was going to lose it.
In 1970 he took a job as stage manager for a revue that was opening in Miami. When it closed in a few weeks he and Ruth returned home to find the ranch vandalized. So many things stolen, mirrors, even doorknobs. The stress and shock were too much for Al and he had a heart attack and died two days later. I feel these things should be told because of the people that came to the ranch under the guise of friendship and took advantage of Ruth.
Ruth was in very bad shape. She adored Al and losing him was devastating. Some people told her they would store things for her and she had no idea where they went. There were exceptions, good friends like the Larsens and John Daniel. Bill Larsen [Jr.] bought trunks of photos and things to use in the Dante Room at the Magic Castle.
My husband was ill at this time and we were living in Fresno. I was able to go to the ranch long enough to help Ruth move into an apartment in Hollywood.
After John had a stroke, Bill Larsen [Jr.] contacted me a couple of times and asked me to come down and go through the trunks. Since I was unable to leave my husband, he eventually sold the trunks. I regret very much not having the photographs of the early years of my family.