“In case you were wondering, I have now changed my wish that you go to Hell. Your actions misusing my daughter’s name have insured that will happen. My new wish is that you ROT in Hell.”
My attorney responded: “Dear Mrs. Granger (her new married name): My client is in receipt of your email and your mistaken judgments. First of all, you have no legal rights to restrict the use of your daughter’s name any more than does her father. Secondly, the assertions of anything being done to make a profit off her name should you choose to make them public will be met swiftly by legal action for libel and/or slander. The audits of the independent audit firm is readily available and will show that any money donated to the foundation has gone solely for the purchases of materials. All personnel time by persons, including your ex-husband, is donated.
“We do agree, however, that there is cause for legal action. After I checked the wording of the judge’s ruling on your divorce, I find that you are in violation of the restraining order you insisted on. Not only was your husband not to contact you, you were not to contact him. Your breach of the order is actionable, and you will receive a cease and desist order soon. We will be requesting a substantial financial judgment if we can prove potential bad publicity your actions have caused the foundation to lose funding. You may also want to reconsider making your lawsuit public not just because of the potential lawsuit, but because it will show the world that you have become a vindictive, petty woman.”
Nothing more was received from Emily or her attorney, but in a few weeks, there was a surprise letter from her husband: Milton Granger.
“Dear Mr. Murphy: I wish to apologize for my wife (soon to be ex-wife) and her rants against you and your organization. When I married Emily, I hoped there was a loving, caring woman under all that suffering from Caroline’s death and the hate she had for you. Like many others, I was carried away with pity for her. The problem was that she never got better. If anything, she got worse. I came to realize that she had married me for the money. She was so dead-set on breaking any contact with you, she used her marriage to me to break the one financial tie you two had. I kept hoping that her hate would die down. Instead, it has consumed her.
“The final event that has caused me to file for divorce was her apoplectic response to Caroline’s Ladders. She was wanting to write an editorial to send to every news outlet in the country. She petitioned Facebook and You Tube and other social media to ban the website and any positive remarks about it. Her self-described ‘finest moment’ was the interview on ABC. She blasted you and your use of Caroline’s name and memory to secure funds which were dubiously accounted for and for whom there had been no proof of a single child that had been helped. Her last lines in the show were: “Name me one child that has been saved by Caroline’s Ladders. I bet you can’t.” I have been contacted by ABC. They are planning a follow-up show. It seems that the response to the initial broadcast was overwhelming, and they have been fact-checking the people who named names of those ‘saved’ by Caroline’s Ladders.