The Podcast–Funeral Service and more

This is a really difficult post to write because I feel that something so private and meaningful to Mary Grace as well as us “Cousins” has been violated by the podcast. This was all about the final good-byes to John Brooks and it gave others a chance to show sympathy to Mary Grace, conducted by one of the Godliest people I know, Reverend Ben Corley, who was requested to do the service by Mary Grace.

Brian’s words were something like this: Sad to see a life with such personality be remembered with so little, to honor him with a service so utterly devoid of him. WOW! I guess my reply to that would be: people need to realize, there were very few that knew the “real” John Brooks, including me. The main thing they knew was how brilliant and intelligent he was. I always believed funerals are as much if not more for the living than the dead, so my focus was to provide some peace for Mary Grace who had just lost her son. A son she saw everyday for over 49 years except for maybe a hand full. I will have to say, it helped when Brian said: “For the person that mattered most, which was Mary Grace, this service did seem to serve its purpose.” The podcast does mention that if Tyler had been in charge, this is a statement he would make. I love you man (John Brooks) but that doesn’t mean I’m trying to get up your butt. I would have hated for Mary Grace to hear that.

As I previously mentioned, when the time came to get Mary Grace out of the heat and back to the car, Tyler was talking with her. I did not hear any of their conversation. When I walked up to them to tell Mary Grace we needed to go, Tyler said “Sorry Mama they will not let me talk to you.” All I said was Tyler I do not know who you have been talking to but, you have the wrong impression of me. On the podcast Brian mentioned Tyler was telling Mary Grace that he loved her and hoped he got to see her again then Mary Grace told him he was welcome to go to her house anytime. That is when I supposedly said “NO Mary Grace that would be trespassing”. Why would I say that when I never heard their conversation? Then we left. Also, for the record I did not hear Mia (Tyler’s mom) say: I hope you do the right thing. Actually, I never thought of NOT doing the right thing.

Now with John Brooks’ burial over, things started to focus on the material things. John Brooks seemed to run his mouth a lot about what he wanted done with certain things. Later we learn that it was just that: talk. Even Brian was thinking that “the cousins” were trying to squeeze Tyler out of John Brooks’ affairs, not giving him what John Brooks had promised and Tyler was getting screwed. After all, we had not been around for decades. Wrong. (It would have taken very little investigating to learn how active we were in Mary Grace and John Brooks lives instead of relying on one biased source.) Besides, Tyler was not the only one that got screwed. (excuse my expression).

The rest of this chapter was Brian’s interviews with John Brooks’ attorney, Boozer Downs and Town Clerk Faye Gamble, who John called the night of his suicide. He confirmed with Attorney Downs that John Brooks did not have a will, he was un-banked, and the possibility of a treasure hunt might start sooner than later. Brian’s conversation with Faye covered the phone call John Brooks made to her the night of his death. I am not even going there—-

Then we are taken to Tyler’s grandmothers house for the post burial gathering. If I had to pick a statement out of the whole podcast that upset or maybe the word should be disappointed me the most, it would have to be when Tyler was talking about how no one really knew him– –Quote: “None of these folks even knows me really and they have no idea I paid for the f—ing tip of that Old Women’s cane.“ I know he was saying that no one knew what he might mean to Mary Grace. And he was probably right I did not understand their relationship–no one had explained it to me. And I could be taking this wrong, just like people took my statement about Nipple rings wrong, but after everything John Brooks did for you and your family you seemed to be put out over what? $$ two bucks?? for an old Women–whose name is Mary Grace. I thought I did pretty good not commenting on the S-Town discussion groups until one day someone said something about the Old Lady—that is just so disrespectful to me. I replied: The old lady has a name and it is Mary Grace. Let’s not forget she is the true victim here.

We also learn in this chapter about the headstone Tyler made for John Brooks’ grave. He really did a nice job and I appreciated it. It helped Mary Grace too since she did not have the money to purchase one.

This chapter also confirmed what we knew all along, but just couldn’t prove: Tyler admitted he was the one going into the house and helping himself, I suspect he got the burial polices that we searched for and never found. And why would he want Uncle Brooks old stock papers? Go figure. I blame John Brooks for most of this mess, I hated that he promised Tyler so much that he did not have the right to give.

For all the talk of “the gold” out of curiosity, I looked up the value of gold on June 22, 2015: it was $1,185.45 an ounce. So, 20 ounces would equal to $23,709.00. (the podcast stated that this was the amount of gold John Brooks wanted Tyler to have) No one knows when all the legal affairs would have been settled so who knows what it would have been worth. (I just have to say, my guess is Tyler probably got the value of 20 ounces of gold, if not more.) I believe the gold was in the freezer like John Brooks told Faye. Who knows who could have taken it, there were a lot of people in and out of the house. Guess we will never know, and at this point I really don’t care. They will have to live with the karma of stealing from an elderly lady.

Ok—Let’s keep talking

Reta