ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) —
In some ways, Rebecca Wright doesn't understand all the fuss over her
96-year-old mother's recent marriage. After all, she says, "Anybody who
wants to get married must have a little dementia."
The courts,
though, and some of Wright's other relatives aren't amused. And the
future for newlyweds Edith Hill, 96, and Eddie Harrison, 95, is very
much uncertain.
The two have
been companions for more than a decade after a Hollywood-style meet-cute
— they struck up a conversation while standing in line for lottery
tickets, with one of the tickets turning into a $2,500 winner. They
married earlier this year, with a 95-year-old church elder presiding
over the ceremony, no less.
"I
guess I wanted company," Hill said in an interview, explaining why she
married. "I wanted somebody I could help, and they could help me. ... We
were both single. My husband was gone. His wife was gone. We became the
best of friends."
Robin Wright, Hill's granddaughter, said the relationship is more romantic than Hill's explanation allows."You catch them kissing all the time," she said. "They're actually in love. Really in love. ... I know he's part of the reason she gets up every morning."
Legally, though, the wedding has been problematic. Hill has been declared legally incapacitated for several years. A judge said at a hearing last month that he believes Wright — co-guardian over her mother along with Rebecca Wright's sister who opposed the marriage — acted improperly by taking her mother to get married without the court's permission.
Cary Cuccinelli,
representing the sister who opposed the marriage, Patricia Barber, said
at last month's hearing that the wedding occurred without other family
members' knowledge, and that it complicated the matter of how to
eventually distribute Hill's estate, which includes property on the edge
of Old Town Alexandria, worth about $475,000, according to real estate
assessments.
"Legally, Mr.
Harrison now has a right to a portion of Ms. Hill's estate," she told
the judge, saying it also complicates decisions over who will care for
Hill, and where she will live.
While
the judge, James Clark, found the marriage to have been improper, he
also worried that breaking up the couple could "create a circumstance in
Ms. Hill's life that she doesn't deserve."
Clark
ended up removing Wright and Barber as Hill's guardians, and appointing
a lawyer, Jessica Niesen, instead. The judge instructed Niesen "to
investigate the marriage and take all actions appropriate and reasonable
to protect the best interests of Edith Hill."
Niesen, in a phone
interview, said she is still gathering facts and has an upcoming
appointment to meet Hill and Harrison. While there are numerous issues
to be sorted out, including questions about inheritance and where the
couple will live, she would just as soon let the marriage continue."I see no reason to break this couple up, if there is no harm," she said. One solution might be a postnuptial agreement preventing Harrison from inheriting Hill's estate.
Niesen said that if she finds that the marriage is not in Hill's best interest, she has the authority to pursue a divorce or possibly an annulment on Hill's behalf.
Wright
said she remained concerned authorities would try to break up the
marriage. She also opposes a postnuptial agreement, saying the marriage
should be respected just as any other.
The
interracial aspect of their marriage is unique as well. She is black
and he is white. In fact, the longtime Virginians would not have been
allowed to marry if they had met in their 20s or 30s or 40s, given
Virginia's law banning interracial marriages at the time.
Wright
says she has concluded after doing some research through Guinness Book
of World Records that the two are likely the nation's oldest interracial
newlyweds.
Edith Hill, for
her part, doesn't give the interracial aspect of her marriage too much
thought, despite the fact that for half of her life it would have been
illegal.
Asked about the old laws barring interracial marriage, she said, "That's done away with, isn't it?"
For
now, the two live together in Annandale, with Rebecca and Robin Wright
helping care for them. Rebecca Wright said the two do a good job taking
care of each other — his hearing is not great, and her vision is not
great. They dance, listen to music and take walks, which has improved
their health.
And Rebecca Wright said the companionship two people of the same age provide each other can't be underestimated.
"They can talk about things that nobody else knows about," she said.
Eddie Harrison said he and Hill never fight, and they both understood what getting married would mean.
"The first time I married I didn't know what I was doing," he said. "I was 18. She was 26. Two weeks later I wanted a divorce."
Source: Yahoo!
No comments:
Post a Comment