TX - Sisters brawl over heirloom jewels at funeral home

Woman attacks her sister at their mother's funeral in battle over family heirloom jewels

A 'catfight' between two sisters at their mother's funeral broke out Monday following a dispute over missing jewellery.

Funeral home staff looked on in horror as the two women exchanged blows during a private visitation in a Texas funeral home.

Kilgore Police said Kimberley Lynn Briggs grabbed her older sister Debra Gail Goff by the hair and punched her several times.

The 45-year-old also shoved her sister to the floor before staff at the Chapel of the Radar Funeral Home managed to pull them apart.

It is believed a dispute over the whereabouts of their mother's jewellery was at the centre of their fight.
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still more, with pictures, at Daily Mail link above

I imagine they planned to spend their inheritance on home improvement - whitewall tires.

I have seen pretty ugly behavior between family members when one of my patients has died. MAny times. One family even went so far as to put 3-M sticky notes on very antique in a woman's home with their names on them so they would be "sure" to get what they wanted when she died. And this woman was the AUNT of those 2 women, FGS! The sticky notes had been affixed about a year earlier, I took care of this woman for 3 years and when I left she hadn't died yet, so all that furniture sats for 4+years with their tacky notes on it. disgusting.

STANDREID said:

I imagine they planned to spend their inheritance on home improvement - whitewall tires.

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LOL!! I liked a quote that someone left at the end of the article-- "From the looks of the woman in the photo, my guess is her family heirloom jewels are from Walmart!"

I think stuff like this happens all of the time. Emotions run high when people are dealing with a death in the family and if you have a relative (I think a lot of us do) who is selfish and greedy, things can get out of hand quickly. I am sure funeral directors have all kinds of stories about this type of thing happening.

I knew a woman like that ... until I saw her behavior when her mother died. While her mother was on her death bed, she went to the house, put on all the jewelery and pranced around saying "all mine". After her mother died, her father wanted to have the jewelery, as each piece was given to his wife on a special occassion. He wanted to decide what to do with it. She had pocketed all the jewelery before the body was cold. Her father went to her house several times to try to retrieve the jewelery ... I have no idea what eventually happened, but I suspect the daughter converted it to cash before anyone knew what happened. If that's how people feel about the loss of a parent, it wouldn't take much for them to shove a friend under a moving bus if it meant they could steal the shoes off your feet.

Sick all I can say.

I had to check the names in the story to make sure it wasn't my sis in law.

After my mom's funeral, she started wearing my mother's clothes. Creeped me out. Twice, during the settling of my mom's will, my sil was detained, once by hospital security and another by a court bailiff, because she was going to assault me. She was angry that she and my brother had to bring back all of the things they removed from my mom's house. Even at my grandmother's funeral she kept talking about what 'she was gonna get' after the funeral. It was the one and only time I have ever threatened bodily harm. I don't regret it, now they live several states away and I like that.

Isn't it amazing how crazed people get at such a sad time?? It happened in my family. My mom only had a few pieces of jewelry, and the only other thing of value my mom had was a set of silver that was given to her as a young bride. My oldest sister had to have it. She kept telling everyone after my mom died (like, minutes after) that since she was the oldest, it went to her. I was too heartsick over losing my mom to even acknowledge her and her idiotic claims. Later, middle sister went through her house and scooped up all the jewelry.

My oldest sister has the silver. She has never used it, to the best of my knowledge. I have often wondered if she plans to be buried with it.

My middle sister has the jewelry, and she, at least, has felt guilty over her behavior.

Other than the fact it never came to blows, this is not a lot different than my father in laws funeral last year. Had it been any other occasion my wife and I would have walked out. I could not believe the senseless arguing over his wares with him lying 10 ft away in a casket. How proud he must have been ...... NOT!

My mom has solved this fighting by giving us heirlooms while she is still here to enjoy seeing us wear it.. Bless her heart.

AbbieNormal said:

I have seen pretty ugly behavior between family members when one of my patients has died. MAny times. One family even went so far as to put 3-M sticky notes on very antique in a woman's home with their names on them so they would be "sure" to get what they wanted when she died. And this woman was the AUNT of those 2 women, FGS! The sticky notes had been affixed about a year earlier, I took care of this woman for 3 years and when I left she hadn't died yet, so all that furniture sats for 4+years with their tacky notes on it. disgusting.

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There are sticky notes all over my parents home----on the back of the antiques and valuables. They were put there by my parents! Theynwant to be sure everyone knows whom they wish each piece to go to.

Sadly, family fights over whom inherits what aren't rare. When my husband's grandparents died, there were numerous knock-down-drag-out fights. The will stipulated that each heir inherit two acres of land, but it did not stipulate which heir would get what two acres......turns out almost everybody wanted the same two acres.

Lesson Learned: Have a will. Be VERY specific!

Ya'll are scaring me....especially since my step-dad just asked me to be the executer of his will

Sent from my LG Esteem, using Tapatalk.

i know it isn't funny, but i swear i had flashes of a tyler perry movie when i read the title of this thread.

In my family, some stuff gets divided in advance and other stuff goes by rotation ... oldest to youngest, everyone takes a turn until it's all gone. The poor woman that died must have only had one thing and thus the ruckus under the casket.

Note to self: make sure there is at least one thing for each of the children before dying

Lol at the tyres : ).

When my grandmother died my (notoriously) greedy aunt was the same..."I'm going to get..." Before her death my grandmother told my mother she didn't want her getting a hold of an antique silver locket which had a picture of my great-grandmother (who died when my grandmother was 6) insode it to go to my aunt. My mother knew she was going to ask about it and it would lead to a fight so did what she thought best: It went in the casket then we watched as the funeral director sealed it. Later that day after she'd been buried, we were at the wake when my auntie asked about all of her *new baubles* and my mum simply said "Well, you're going to need a shovel..." The sad thing is we half expected her to do it!

kgeaux said:

Lesson Learned: Have a will. Be VERY specific!

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SBM

This is advice that everyone should truly take to heart. A lot of people don't want to come to terms with the fact that, eventually, they are going to die....so it's difficult for them to actually sit down and write a will. A will doesn't even have to be a big deal, it can be hand-written on a piece of paper. As long as it's notarized, it's a valid document. At least here in Missouri, it is possible it's not the same in all states.

My grandparents have a daughter who estranged herself (and her children) from them (and most of her siblings) over ten years before either of my grandparents died. My grandma begged my grandpa to sit down and write a formal will because she didn't want this daughter causing problems when they were both gone but he refused. So, my grandma made sure to make it well-known what she wanted each of us to have. She also gave my mom and me all of her sentimental jewelry and told everyone in the family that when she died, I was to get her wedding ring (I am the only granddaughter). She died before my grandpa, a little over 5 years ago, and he refused to give me the ring. I was too grief-stricken to even talk to him about it, but my mother and each of my uncles talked to him....he wanted her to be buried with the ring. The funeral director even tried to talk him out of it, but he had his mind made up. It never even occured to me to make a big deal out of it, not once. I was too heartbroken over losing my grandma to even feel any other emotion.

A few months later, he finally sat down and wrote a will. He wrote it on a piece of notebook paper what he wanted to happen upon his death-- he wanted their house to be sold and the money equally divided up between the 6 children (even the estranged daughter). He wanted an "auction" to be held for all of the contents of the house. Not a big auction but an auction for his children. If someone wanted something, they bid on it and the person who bid the highest got the item. Then all of the money from the "auction" was to be divided up between the 6 of them. It was the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard of-- LOL!! The estranged daughter didn't even show up, so it was very easy to divide up the things and everyone got what they wanted with no arguments.

I read the article and it is a shame such a fight broke out at that time. There was probably a lot of underlying anger and the jewelry was just the straw that broke the camel's back.

I am kind of miffed though at the newspaper to allow the writer to characterize the fight as a 'cat fight'. It was a fight between two people who happen to be women. It trivializes and is just plain sexist to label a fight between women as 'cat fights'.

When our father died, my brother and I divided everything equally. We flipped for a family Bible, which he desperately wanted. Although he lost the coin toss, I gave it to him anyway. Was it worth it? Yes. Definitely. Families are forever, and our friendship endures.

Crap...these women must be distant relatives. My Uncle left the funeral early and backed his truck up to my Grandfather's home and unloaded everything he could get in the truck. My grandparents raised me until his death...so all my pictures birth through twelve were held hostage by this cretin until last year. I am almost fifty. Thankfully, I never have to see this person again.

My will is extremely specific and has a clause disowning anyone who fights the distribution of assets.

Trino said:

When our father died, my brother and I divided everything equally. We flipped for a family Bible, which he desperately wanted. Although he lost the coin toss, I gave it to him anyway. Was it worth it? Yes. Definitely. Families are forever, and our friendship endures.

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I would love to have a sibling like you.