I hope that you are both in good health and the gospel is still in the center of your hearts. I feel compelled to write this letter as a final effort to reconcile pieces of the family. There are a couple eclipsing things that need to be verbalized. After Papa’s funeral, to which Tiffany and I were unwelcome, Grandmother told me with all sincerity that you greatly desired that your funeral would not be that way, and that you wanted all your family united on the front row together. In the most recent letter from you, dad, there was a mention of family legacy. I would like to speak to both of these. I think the division in the family is evident enough that I don’t need to speak to the funeral very much. The message to most of the family, both directly and indirectly, is that we aren’t welcome. Some won’t attend because they have been cut off and some won’t attend because your actions have caused you to be cut off. This is probably something that is pretty well understood at this point, but I feel the obvious needs to be stated so everyone understands that everything that has happened and that will happen is not the result of fleeting emotions, but thought out and executed decisions by sound minded people. There are no victims, all is cause and effect. The next thing I have to address is the idea of legacy. I have hesitated to point this out directly in the past, but as long as I’m stating the obvious, I’ll go ahead. I stated this more delicately in my previous letter, to which I received no reply, so I’ll say it more directly. So far there are 3 male heirs to the Stewart name, I can’t speak for Tim and his 2 boys, but I can speak for myself and Kilian, the oldest Stewart boy of his generation and the only Stewart boy in El Paso to carry on the Stewart legacy in El Paso. As it stands now, he has 1 photo with you, Grandmother, and that will be the only physical memory he will have of any Stewart in my lineage. He’s never known my mom and dad and I fear he never will. He will know that his grandparents and his great grandmother were conspirators, liars and scoundrels who, out of greed, attempted to defraud their own kin. He’ll know that after his dad’s uncle passed away, you all conspired to take advantage of his widow for your own personal gain. Cruel little cowards, hiding behind legal documents to exercise their greed in anonymity. There’s a reason Jesus warns about greed 10 times more than he warns about adultery or any other sin, because it’s exponentially more destructive. The only Stewart legacy left will be a dark one, one completely devoid of any of Christ’s teaching and one of greed and selfishness. The entire Stewart legacy will be reset with him, I’m not worthy of passing on any legacy myself. I will do all I can to raise him to love Christ and to walk in his ways and the only thing he will inherit from his ancestors is the knowledge that everyone can and will turn to evil. I hope that your future actions will be an example that those who turn to evil can always turn away and run back to Christ. I hope you can see now that while you thought you were cutting family off, you were actually cutting yourselves off. Is this really how you want to live the rest of your lives, isolated and left only as a toxic memory? I’m not saying any of these things to be coercive, it is a truth that I have known I will have to face in the future when my son starts asking about my family, and it would be wrong for me to keep it to myself. I love you both and I hope that a new relationship can arise from this, one of love and forgiveness and free of greed, selfishness and manipulation.
Dear Reida, I have thought and prayed long and hard over every word in this letter and have read and reread it before sending it to you. I love my Stewart family and it breaks my heart to see what is continuing to happen within it. Because I know directly from James, Frankie and you the things that were said and done over the course of the three years leading up to Frankie’s death and now, even after his death, are continuing against him and his family, I cannot stand by and not try to reach out to you before it’s too late.
My hope and prayer is that it will remind you of all the things that Frankie did for you and his dad and James over the course of his remarkable life and make you think about the consequences to you and your legacy within the Stewart family if you continue with this lawsuit against Frankie’s estate. I fear that you will irreparably split members of the family off from you and that the memories of you that will be passed to the generations that are now and are yet to be born will not be those of a kind and loving matriarch but rather of one whose last years were spent inflicting pain and hurt on so many members of her family. Though I know that this is not your lawsuit as much as it is James none the less it bears your name.
In 2016 when James contacted me, I was thrilled to reconnect with the two of you. I was always closest to Bro Frank’s generation, especially Auntie, Uncle, Jack and Gilvie and after their deaths i lost contact with everyone but Frankie. From our first meeting at Auntie’s we had an inexplicable connection that over the years turned into a deep bond of love and respect as we became each other’s confidant. No matter the time that passed between calls nor how brief they might be, we always knew we were only a phone call away if needed.
When James first began talking to me about his belief that he had been cheated out of his rightful inheritance from Bro Frank and that it was somehow all Frankie’s fault, (tried to listen and be sympathetic to him, even though I knew none of it was true because I remembered the events contained in this letter in real time. It soon became clear that he not only believed what he was saying but that he was actively planning by any means possible to get back what he thought he was owed. It also became clear to me that he began planting seeds of doubt about Frankie in you, Reida.
I listened to you struggle as more pressure was applied to you by James. And, ( listened to Frankie as he grew more bewildered and then hurt that you would actually believe him capable of some of the things you were now questioning him about.
I listened to James as his anger and malice toward Frankie grew and as his frustration with you grew because you did not want to hurt Frankie or take legal action against him. I began keeping notes afraid of where all of this was going.
On Aug 16, 2020, what I believe to be James’s desperation, boiled over and that was the day he told me that he had issued you the ultimatum that you had to choose between him and Frankie and that whichever one you chose you could have no more contact with the other. I pleaded with James not to do that to you because I couldn’t imagine anything worse for a mother than to have to choose between her children, especially at your advanced age. But his greed, and I came to believe, his hatred and jealousy of Frankie were so great, he forced you to make a choice and even wrote down for you the words you said to Frankie that Monday morning, August 17, 2020, that would sever your relationship with him. I know that because James called me afterwards gloating that you had done it. I knew from the time James issued the ultimatum that you really did not have a choice. Though Frankie provided for all your needs financially, as well as being the one you always called when you needed things done, it was James and Ann that provided the hands on caregiving, i.e., going with you to doctor’s appointments, having you over for dinner on a weekly basis, taking you to Ruidoso with them almost every weekend, etc. James made it clear it was them that stood between you and going to a facility to live. I knew from you how much you feared that happening.
I knew that it was James who was behind all of it, manipulating and frightening you into doing and saying the things you did and I told Frankie what I knew to try to ease his heartache as well as bewilderment that you would actually tell him not to come back to your house or even call you. But that didn’t take away the hurt and ache in his heart which he carried with him to his grave 3 months later.
Frankie and I spoke every day for several weeks after that as he was grappling with your words and actions. We spoke on the Monday before he was hospitalized after he had received a text from James which read, “See YOU in court”. Those turned out to be the last words Frankie would hear from the brother whom he had stood beside and supported through his nervous breakdown following Daniel’s death. Despite what you both said to him and about him, you know that it was Frankie who shouldered the burdens and needs of the whole family after Daniel died. He was a devoted son and brother who willing took on added responsibility. He remained a devoted son to Bro. Frank until he died and to you until you turned him away.
It was Frankie who gave James a job at Sonitrol and a credit card through Sonitrol when James couldn’t get one on his own. And it was James who ran that credit card up so high that Frankie had to pay it down so all the other Sonitrol cards wouldn’t stay frozen because of James. It was Frankie who “invested” and lost money when James came asking for help to start up two ultimately failed business schemes.
It was Frankie who took care of the outstanding debts that James created in Bro Frank’s company so his dad did not have to go through the humiliation of filing bankruptcy. It was Frankie who made a position and office available at Sonitrol for his Dad so he could still feel useful. It was Frankie who devotedly cared for his Dad until his death and it was to Frankie that Bro Frank entrusted your care for the rest of your life, as he made clear in HIS will. And, for the last 20 years, it was Frankie who took care of the vast majority, if not all of your financial needs, including the care and maintenance of you, your house, yard and vehicle.
Because having money in your own name was so important to you, it was Frankie who oversaw your Raymond James account as well as your checking account, and by so doing there was over $300,000 in those combined accounts at the time you took them away from him and gave them to James to manage.
I know that when the Mexican bank failed and he was struggling to stay afloat financially until he was able to make the deal with Ga-Pacific, it was to Bro Frank he turned. I find it interesting in the lawsuit that the claim is Frankie borrowed the funds from you, because I know that the Stewart brothers had a hard and fast rule that wives did not participate in business and financial matters. For tax or estate planning purposes they might put assets in their wives name, but the men were still in control of the assets. understand that you are saying there is no formal record of his paying the monies back but you and I both know he more than paid it all back before Bro Frank died. And, if you tally up all the money he spent from his personal funds to maintain your lifestyle as well as maintain your house and grounds, furnish you with a maid, gardener and driver when you no longer could drive, I think you would find he more than paid you back.
Frank, Sr knew all the money Frankie had given back to him after the fiasco with James and taking care of him for the rest of his life. He and Frankie were squared away at the end of his life, which is why Bro Frank made it clear in HIS will that the only thing James was to inherit was a 1991Jeep Cherokee and that the house as well as everything else would eventually go to Frankie at your death. For that reason it never occurred to Frankie that he needed to keep records of when and how any debt was repaid and apparently Bro Frank didn’t feel it was necessary either. Neither of them could ever have imagined that the day would come when you would disregard Bro. Frank’s wishes and betray Frankie to make sure you could leave even more money than the $300,000 to poor little James at your death. It was never really about the possibility of not having money to take care of your needs for the rest of your life, because Frankie had made it clear to you that he would make sure you were cared for the rest of your life, just as he had faithfully provided for you the past 20 years. it was all about a money grab for James.
Frankie asked me at some point after things got so unpleasant between you, if I remembered how growing up it had always been you and the two younger boys vs him and I did and I do. He said “I guess I should not be surprised that it is now Mother and James against me.”
Reida, I feel sure you remember the vast difference in the way Frankie was raised as compared to the two younger boys. Bro Frank had Frankie working all the time when he wasn’t in school almost from the time he could walk and when he graduated from high school he was put out on his own to make his way in the world with no help from either of you. In fact you moved with the younger ones to Canada leaving Frankie alone (Auntie called it abandoned) in El Paso. It was Auntie and Jo Ruth who kept him fed and it was Auntie and Uncle who slipped him money to help him survive as he picked up all the work he could find while paying for his college education. You have no idea the struggle and hardship he went through during those years and how determined he was that he would prove to you and Bro Frank that he would make something worthwhile of his life even without any assistance from you. He told me when he was just 21 that he would be a millionaire by the time he was 45 no matter how many hours he had to work to achieve it.
By contrast, while Frankie was struggling going to college and working such long grueling hours, we watched as Daniel and James were pampered by you and Bro Frank and were given a free ride for their every need, including their education. I never heard Frankie say nor did he ever write me one angry word about you and his Dad, but I can tell you Auntie and I had plenty of anger and resentment for the way Frankie was treated.
Frankie was such a wonderful man who lived his whole life with honor and integrity. He was loved and admired by so many, many people. He was kind, thoughtful, compassionate, generous and was the most optimistic person I have ever known. Always he was an encourager and the first to reach out to someone in need. He asked me once if I had to describe him in one word what would it be and without having to think I said Servant. He faithfully served his Lord, his family, his church, his community and his fellow man his whole life.
I am also aware that he was not perfect. He had his flaws as we all do. As much as we loved and respected each other, we certainly had our differences from time to time and the biggest difference we ever had was about the cavalier way he treated the Covid virus. As a nurse I was seeing and hearing what it was aoing to people in real time but I could not get through to him. In the end, his stubbornness, pride and maybe his cowboy mindset that he could “handle that little virus” cost him his life, even though I told him one of the worst thing about Covid was not being able to predict how each person would respond.
Over the years he had always called me for health related questions about himself, his employees or friends. When I would suggest he needed a physician to answer certain things, he would always come back with, “but YOU are the one I trust the most”. So, I was not surprised when he was hospitalized with Covid, he told his doctors that they were to talk with me about managing his care. I followed the instructions he gave me, Reida, that was to give you and James no information about his condition. I had the great honor and privilege of walking with him through those last days of his life, though it was also the most excruciatingly painful thing I have ever done in my 40+ years as a nurse. I have missed and mourned him every day since he went Home.
If you continue this vendetta against Frankie for James benefit, perhaps both of you would do well to remember the words found in Proverbs 1:19 “Such are the paths of all who go after ill gotten gains; it takes away the life Of those who get it” NIV Sincerely, Eliee January 19, 2022
I hope this letter finds you of sound mind and in the loving embrace of our Lord, Jesus Christ. I want you to know that I did not write this letter with any malice or ill-will, I write it only to make sure you clearly understand what the attached Claim is. It’s a stick of dynamite. If you pursue it, it won’t only destroy your family, but it will forever damage all future generations. That is why I have sent a copy of this letter to everyone, so that the truth can be known by all after the fallout. I can’t imagine this has to do with money, because I’ve never known you to be the type of person who would be so consumed by greed that they would wish to take millions of dollars from anyone, especially your sons widow. I’ve never known you to hold a debt over anyone, because in your life long study of Jesus’ teachings you would know that we’re called to forgive our debtors, just as our debts have been forgiven. You would also know that anyone who desires to have $4 million would not be trusting in God, but seeking their own fortified city. You would know that a heart that desires great riches, especially at the expense of someone else, would never be able to inherit the Kingdom of God. You need to understand that if you pursue this, your entire legacy will be lost. This will be the only act out of the long and bountifully fruitful life that you will be remembered for. There are a series of questions that I think you should ask yourself before you proceed. If Grandad was still alive right now, would he have signed those papers with you? If your beloved son Frank was still alive right now, would you sue him for $4 million? That’s essentially what you’re doing. Lastly, would Jesus do this? This treachery will far outlive you, causing a permanent rift filled with hate and derision between all who are involved. I can say this with confidence as an outsider who is not involved and who you have always trusted. I have nothing to gain or to lose in writing this letter except to try to keep in tact the character and honor of a woman who I have always loved and who has been a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ all of my life. Remember, the minute you put a price on your character, it’s worth nothing and ill gotten gains will never be anything but poison to all who indulge in them. I will always love you and my house will always be open to you.
