Gene Hackman R.I.P.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in the countryside. We always had mice in our house. Getting sick with hantavirus from mice is very rare. Most people who live in rural or countryside or famrland or work in agriculture or live or work in spaces with a lot of nature are around mice.

According to CDC, since surveilance began in the USA in 1993, there have been 864 cases of hantavirus recorded which included a retrospective analysis of cases from before 1993. Of those 35% resulted in death so 300 people have died of hantavirus since 1993 which is 10 deaths a year.

It is estimated that approximaley 21 million Americans homes will have mice every year.

Her death is a rare fluke occurance.

[Anonymous]

A good article that talks more to the caregiving emergency that many of us face when a loved one is 100 percent dependent.

Not posting this to fault Betsy, but for some of us who have been thru this, it does make you ask questions.

Old age is tough to take on. But an older parent or spouse with Alzheimer’s is a different challenge all together.

Not saying that she was negligent. But I do feel that this article gets it right.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/theres-1-thing-no-one-120043517.html

[Anonymous]

She married a man old enough to be her father expecting to enjoy life after inheriting all his money but then he outlived her and there was no backup plan. Tragic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She married a man old enough to be her father expecting to enjoy life after inheriting all his money but then he outlived her and there was no backup plan. Tragic.

This is a silly take. It's obvious from photos that she loved him. She was married to him for decades. At the end, she protected his privacy at the cost of her life.

[Anonymous]

I get the feeling she was not aging super healthy as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I get the feeling she was not aging super healthy as well.

Being a full time caretaker for someone with Alzheimer’s and other health issues can be debilitating for the caregiver. It’s not unusual for them to die younger than they should.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get the feeling she was not aging super healthy as well.

Being a full time caretaker for someone with Alzheimer’s and other health issues can be debilitating for the caregiver. It’s not unusual for them to die younger than they should.

And to not employ help when husband id worth about 80 million? Something was very "off" with those two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get the feeling she was not aging super healthy as well.

Being a full time caretaker for someone with Alzheimer’s and other health issues can be debilitating for the caregiver. It’s not unusual for them to die younger than they should.

And to not employ help when husband id worth about 80 million? Something was very "off" with those two.

He was off definitely. I know we are supposed to glorify the deceased and he was a very talented actor, but he had demons. He had a traumatic childhood and would allegedly get into physical fights up until his 70s! He was rumored to have a terrible temper. I grew up with a parent with a terrible temper and so did a few of my friends. That often goes hand in hand with abuse if the person won't get treatment. I have no idea what went on with his kids other than him being away a lot, but people are rarely worse in public than they are at home. Often they are worse behind closed doors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From a Lawyer point of view the fact Arakawa is being pronounced Dead prior to Hackman's death means most likely Hackmans kids get it all.

Hackman was married to his first wife, Faye Maltese, from 1956 to 1986. The couple welcomed three children: son Christopher and daughters Elizabeth and Leslie. Five years after his split with Maltese, who died in 2017, Hackman wed Arakawa.

Yep. Had she survived him, she would have inherited it all as his wife. So his kids are the next in line and will inherit.

Good! I hate marriages like this (though I have no personal experience )

Marriages like what? Two people who didn't know each other during the first marriage, who stayed together through 30 years, and the wife was beyond devoted to his care? You hate marriages like that? If she survived, she wouldn't deserve his estate? Get off the crack pipe.

Marriages where one spouse is the same age as the kids and where all the money goes to that spouse

[Anonymous]

I read somewhere that since he had a trust as the executor of his estate, it is possible he had left money to his children within the trust. Since trusts are private, it said that some celebs use them to avoid the specifics being known in their will - which is public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m wondering if she even took Gene to doctors that often. Someone on the outside should have been monitoring his health. It doesn’t seem like he was getting the health care he needed. None of those pills found dealt with his heart disease. He only had a pacemaker. I could go on.


I hope this was not deliberate, but feel that she could have done far more for him. I think if doctors knew about the advanced dementia ( she probably hid it), then they would have been adamant about getting home resources for him, or suggest a memory care facility for him. It’s a tough thing to do, but we went both routes with my parents. Having care at home gave us more time with one parent, and saved a little cost, though home care is not cheap.

Memory care facilities are expensive, but help you gain your life
back.

PP who called Arakawa negligent and I stand by this statement. She sounds like a control freak nightmare. I’m certain she didn’t share Gene’s diagnosis with his adult children (clearly the one DD who claimed her dad was in great health and did yoga was happy to buy into the delusion) and maybe being in denial herself, just went ahead and lived her life to include prioritizing her dogs’ care, health and well-being g above her own husband’s.

Maybe… but he was 95 so either had great genes or someone looking out for him.

Total anecdote and I am biased but… DH and I joke that my stepmother (20 years younger than my ailing elderly father) is doing the bare minimum with his care because she’s ready for him to kick it so she can live her life free as a bird, with a healthy inheritance. I’ve tried to set up care for him many times but she refuses.

My grandmother died at 101 and had full-blown dementia for the last decade of her life. She had no serious medical concerns, was ambulatory, toileted independently, and would calmly sit and watch tv for most of the day. She needed to be kept safely indoors and directed to meals, but that was pretty much it. Accounts suggest Gene was quite healthy and may have only needed minimal support and direction, meals prepared, and so on. Seems that his wife was handling everything just fine until she fell ill quite suddenly. Surely she supposed it was the flu and she'd recover sooner rather than later, was able to run errands the day she died. Deeming her negligent is uncalled-for.

PP and no, no physician would ever recommend that a patient with advanced dementia EVER be left alone! Negligent!

DP. My neighbor is a caregiver and she leaves her charge with dementia for a few hours at a time but the old lady is immobile. Not sure about Gene

[Anonymous]

I think it is quite possible that he didn't need very much care. He needed assistance but since he was still mobile and walking on his own - he probably didn't need much physical help. She made his meals and he would probably eat them on his own. He may well still have been able to toilet and bath himself maybe with some reminders. He may not have really needed that much care.

He survived a week after her and wasn't dehydrated. He died from cardiovascular disease (his hypertension and heart disease), not starvation. The stress combined with not taking meds may have been what killed him.

Just because he was older doesn't mean he wasn't able to still do most things on his own. Last summer (less than 9 months before his death) he was at a public event walking aroud and chatting with people and taking pictures with them.

[Anonymous]

More info coming out.

Betsy had a doctors appointment for Feb 10th for something unrelated to respiratory issues but called that day to cancel as she said Gene was not well. On Feb 11th, she spent the day running errands with no obvious signs of significant illness. On Feb 12, in the am she called the doctors office again and asked to make another appointment - again unrelated to respiratory symptoms and was told she could come in that afternoon. She didn't show up or respond to calls from the doctor's office.

It seems unusual for hantavirus to kill without progressive worsening of respiratory symptoms.

Also she didn't die on the 11th as previousy thought given she spoke to her doctor's office on the 12th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So it seems that Gene last made a will in 2005 and at that time, he left everything to his wife with his estate to be managed by a trust.

Betty's will leaves (almost) everything to Gene and in the event that she outlives him, then she leaves everything to a trust to be distributed to charity. She also designated specific people to receive art pieces and jewelry

His estate is apparently is in the ballpark of 80 million.

Betty dying almost a week before Gene will be a big factor in this.

Gosh. With an 80 million dollar estate, a caretaker of some sort seems like it would have been a good expense to undertake.

He would have to accept the caregiver. There are eccentric rich people who refuse to allow caregivers and don't want outsiders (housekeepers, etc) to see them looking vulnerable. With Alzheimers the person can become quite paranoid and difficult-so who knows.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m wondering if she even took Gene to doctors that often. Someone on the outside should have been monitoring his health. It doesn’t seem like he was getting the health care he needed. None of those pills found dealt with his heart disease. He only had a pacemaker. I could go on.


I hope this was not deliberate, but feel that she could have done far more for him. I think if doctors knew about the advanced dementia ( she probably hid it), then they would have been adamant about getting home resources for him, or suggest a memory care facility for him. It’s a tough thing to do, but we went both routes with my parents. Having care at home gave us more time with one parent, and saved a little cost, though home care is not cheap.

Memory care facilities are expensive, but help you gain your life back.

He lived to 95. It's absurd to say he wasn't getting the health care he needed when in actuality his wife clearly did something right during their years of marriage considering his advanced age.

I disagree. Didn’t the autopsy reveal that he was in very poor health? Heart trouble, advanced Alzheimer’s? Moreover, wasn’t he left alone while she ran errands? Wasn’t he found with an empty stomach? Didn’t he have a pacemaker? How do you call this good health?

The doctors said that he was in very poor health at death.
And it was due to his being left alone that he died.

I think you think that living to the age of 95 meant that he did something right health wise. He may have just had great genetics, or God wasn’t ready for him to go yet.

Look at Jimmy Carter. He lived to 100. Others live past that. And some totally healthy people may succumb to death at an early age. It doesn’t mean that they didn’t live right or wasn’t getting the best health care.

Are you blaming the wife for not feeding him when she'd already been dead for a week?

Yep, though you are twisting my words.

He obviously could not feed himself. Do you think that she knew that? Yet still ran errands away from the home and left him there by himself. She was his caregiver and had no plan b should anything happen to her or any delay with her returning.
That’s not right. It’s a certain degree of negligence or neglect.

As I shared, both of my parents had advanced Alzheimer’s. Eating, restroom function, bathing—those and functions decline over time. With one parent it was rapid. With the other, it happened over a few years.

He was totally dependent on her like a baby to a parent. If that parent dies, then the baby is without a provider.

It’s as simple as that. As a few of us have shared, he needed someone else watching out for him also. I am positive that a doctor would have recommended that. Under insurance, he could have had help paid for, given his condition.

She didn’t want this. And like it or not, she never expected a time where she could not provide and he would be alone. In her position of authority, she had options but ignored him. So yeah, she is responsible for his condition, else he would have had someone there who could have helped him and fed him.

Insurance didn't pay for help. She may not have had full access to the money. I'd do everything possible to keep my husband at home. I was a caretaker for a year to my MIL and then had ot put her in a nursing home and it was horrible.

For those who think the kids should have gotten something, why? Typically it goes to the married spouse. It sounds like they were estranged and they did nothing to help him.