The Great Hunter has had “stuff” on his mind the last couple of months. His dad passed away in 1994 where he lived in Louisiana and they never had the best of relationships. GH was an unintended product of a relationship between his young biological mom and military dad.

Way back in the dark ages of the end of WWII, if a woman got pregnant, the man did the right thing and married her. But his dad didn’t want to marry his mom and was forced by the military to marry her after her brothers complained to the them about his refusal. The marriage was very short. Findagrave.com states they were married:

 6 May 1945 in Jackson County, Arkansas. Frances succumbed 2:30 a.m. 28 May 1945 to “acute cardiac dilatation due to labor, 8 month baby delivered 14 hours before death of mother.” A contributing factor was “pneumonitis.”

So not only was his dad forced into a marriage he didn’t want, he now had a child which he probably didn’t want either. Luckily, GH had a loving grandmother and aunt who helped love and spoil him until his dad remarried. This wonderful woman raised the Great Hunter as her own and GH didn’t even know she was not his biological mother until he was a teenager. Unfortunately, GH’s lovely stepmom passed away in 1981.

Within months after the Great Hunter’s stepmother died, his dad married a woman who was only four years older than GH and almost twenty years younger than GH’s dad. Although GH was out of the house by then, it created hard feelings between his dad and his kids.

Fast forward to 1994. His dad and stepmother are still married and living in Louisiana when his dad passed away.  The State of Louisiana is a community property state. Real estate purchased jointly is not held with rights of survivorship as it is in most states.  When property owned with another person dies, that person’s share of the property goes to his heirs, not to the surviving co-owner. But the surviving co-owner has the right to remain in the home until he or she passes away.

This is where the problem arose. The Great Hunter and his siblings (there were five children) knew that they would inherit a 50 percent share of the real estate in Louisiana but since their step-mother was still alive and living in the property their inheritance would have to wait. A couple months ago, the Great Hunter learned that his stepmother had passed away and now the property was vacant. And apparently, it had been vacant for quite a while.

Because there was no relationship between this step-mother and  GH’s brothers and sister after the Great Hunter’s dad died,  all the things that he had promised his kids; his arrowhead collection, his Meerschaum pipe collection, his guns, his Jim Beam decanter collection and other things, were never given to them. The step-mother even told GH’s aunt that she had burned the family photographs.

So this past weekend, instead of going turkey hunting as was the original plan, the Great Hunter and his son and his brother drove to Louisiana to see for themselves what was left of the house.

The house had clearly been abandoned for some time and the inside was trashed. But much to their great surprise and delight, they were able to find some of the personal items their dad had promised them still inside the house. The Great Hunter was able to rescue some of the Meerschaum pipes, Jim Beam decanters, personal photographs and papers, and other items that belonged to their dad and even some items that belonged to his mother.

It remains to be seen how getting the house sold is going to play out. Hopefully, we are able to get the attorney we contacted several months ago, to get this matter rolling.

Think we could get Tarek El Moussa and Flip or Flop to buy it?