My dad is dying. This is a fact many American families will be sharing over the next few years as the last of the Greatest Generation and the first of the Baby Boomers ride off into the sunset. My father, Carl Westcott, is an 83-year-old veteran of the U.S. Army 101st Airborne and is mostly known in the business community for his successful entrepreneurial ventures. He was inducted into the Horatio Alger Society of Distinguished Americans in 2003, joining Oprah Winfrey, Henry Kissinger, and Michael Bloomberg. Not bad for a guy from Vicksburg, Mississippi, who grew up in a home without indoor plumbing and whose formal education was a GED.
Yet, like all human beings, age eventually caught up with him, rendering my dad elderly and frail. Adding to the burden, he also suffers from Huntington’s Disease, which he’s been battling since 2015, symptoms of which include dementia. It is in this vulnerable state that he found himself ensnared in a heart-wrenching real estate contract that would soon pit our family against international popstar Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, whose stage name is Katy Perry.
On July 18, 2020, in the aftermath of a serious back surgery, while experiencing extreme pain and under the influence of opioid painkillers and numerous drugs for pain and mental issues, my father sat in his dream home, which he had bought just two months prior as his intended final primary residence. On this day, in my father’s dream house and under the influence of pain medication, he formed
