A family member reentered the family business just before I left, and convinced the helpless matriarch (the ostensible new prime stockholder) to facilitate this personís acting as de facto CEO, supplanting me as I backed off and went on to other things. But this family member was not satisfied with running it all. First I was sued for making a living in the same field on the East Coast. Then the family member borrowed money from Mesa in 1988 and gave a little back each month to own all the stock. The total paid was about 1/200th of the possible market value, but Mesa forgot about what she had signed and later did not understand she probably no longer owned the company. Some experts say the deal was a swindle, considering Mesaís state of physical and mental (neurological) health. An investigation was barely done.

When Mesa wasnít even getting her monthly income from the "family-named company" back in 1995, the certain family member overcame her motherís and brothersí objections by forcing Mesa into conservatorship. To aid this rapid ex parte process Mesa was claimed to have no hope of recovery, and my brother and I were described as unreliable for a trusting relationship with their mother with her (reduced) income and "net worth." An unaware judge, not knowing the real facts, was told by the certain family member that there was "no debt to proposed conservatee," so he "granted" conservatorship. Voila, the Lundberg family is further destroyed along with the motherís dignity and remaining wealth.

Now, if the solution is thought to be "get a good lawyer," this has so far not yielded to the best of attempts to get a lawyer possessing the traits of being trustworthy, aggressive, competent and affordableóand weíre not overly fussy.

Mesa chafed under the conservatorship and was no longer seen by our family member who didnít call for years, until the opportunity arose to tighten control again.

Mesa had luckily moved to Arcata in 1997 and began intensive physical therapy for stroke damage, and made progress. Unfortunately, in 1999 an outsider saw an opportunity to control her through one of her sons, and they shipped Mesa secretly off to a southern California town where they mostly lived off her conservatorís allowance. She was not doing as well as in Arcata, was mostly isolated, and was forced into a hospital in January 2001. She quickly was given personal conservatorship to go with the prior estate conservatorship which is less than half as controlling or oppressive.

It seemed obvious that Mesa needed to return home, and promises were made by the new conservator on that. But she remains in a southern California nursing home, not allowed to return to her own home in Arcata, as she is claimed to be too ill to travel and/or would not be well enough cared for at home. However, several months of institutional "care" offered the usual unnatural hospital diet, little physical therapy or walking, and did not prevent her from breaking her hip and soon getting another life-threatening conditionóconditions that arise when older people are too sedentary.

She recovered from the operations but languishes in a $5,500 per month (!) nursing home with rare visits from her local family. Her home several hundred miles to the north is to be sold as soon as her dwindling funds are gone for nursing-home and conservatorship feesóalthough she could live well provided for in her home (all paid for), just on her social security.

The family member enforcing this in court also fired a sister who was barely subsisting. Dismissal is what can happen to you if you talk to persons who question antisocial behavior. If the source of "wealth" is bad, some of us want nothing to do with it; not even a subsistence handout. However, mainstream morality dictates that we look the other way, to justify the existence of whatever wrongdoing done by society at large. We say, "But the U.S.A. is not all bad." True, but thatís not the point.

One might take this as more evidence of a trend: that being part of todayís mainstream may mean not fully knowing what is right from wrong. Doing nothing, when ameliorative action is in order, can be the same as doing something wrong or immoral.

Losing oneís home and winding up in a virtual jail in oneís golden years, after raising a family and building an estate, can happen to anyone: There is less and less security. Is there no real family, just the dollar (if youíve been lucky to hold onto it)? Goes to show you that the dollar and its systemóthis society and cultureóainít sustainable.

I love my mother, and consider her to be a fine roommate. Fun to be around. But hope for her being reunited with loved ones is dimming, the longer she is trapped. The trap is as strong as a spider web; a younger person is too ornery to stay caught and tolerate leeches or scam artists.

Update Nov. 2002: After a court battle in September for Mesa Lundberg to return to her home, which was and remains her clear wish, the judge ruled she must live hereafter in a nursing home that is end-stage and not rehabilitative, even though Mesa is not terminal or very disabled.  The judge further ordered her house sold, to pay for the over $6,000 a month cost of the nursing home.  The judge cited as his rationale primarily the alleged presence of mildew in Mesa's house.  Mesa's oil-industry connected daughter who owns Lundberg Survey, and Mesa's youngest son, claimed that Mesa's house is mildewed and cold.  Mesa owns the (well heated) house outright, and the county environmental inspector's report states there is no mildew.  Restrictive visiting by Mesa's relatives is in effect at the nursing home, although discussion is now allowed on where Mesa wants to live.  This action against Mesa and her home by two misguided relatives, and various professionals profiting off Mesa's plight, may be more directed at Jan Lundberg's activism with Sustainable Energy Institute/Culture Change which operates out of Mesa's home.  When families are commonly behaving in such ways, it is clear that we need a culture change! 

For a new approach to elder care, see Health Care Tribe, Culture Change e-Letter #8.  For more information read: Sustainability Starts With Family Solidarity and the latest on Mesa Lundberg at http://www.culturechange.org/MVLundberg_page.html

Below: Mesa Vernell Lundberg in captivity, early 2002, southern California.  To express your support for her freedom and rights, email her family at jan@culturechange.org.  Thank you.