Charges dropped; heartache continues

By Elizabeth Cook

ecook@salisburypost.com

A judge dismissed charges of elder exploitation against Mary Byrd of Salisbury last month, but she says her heartache is far from over.

At issue: Does she have any right to see former housemate Horace Billings and live in his house, or should she accept his son's intention to cut all ties?

"This here has just about got me," says Mary. She wants to care for Horace and "give him some quality of life again," she says.

His son and only child, Bill Billings of Charlotte, sees the situation very differently.

"I'm just trying to protect my father," Bill says.

Horace Billings, 81, retired in 1988 after 40 years as Salisbury Post sports editor. An institution in the local sports scene, he was one of the first inductees into the Salisbury-Rowan Sports Hall of Fame. He received award after award for his coverage of local sports.

Coincidentally, he wrote about Mary — then Mary Mesimer — back in the 1950s, when she was playing basketball for China Grove High School.

Mary, 78, still has yellowed clippings of those stories.

But their paths seldom crossed in the decades that followed until 1998, when Mary heard Horace was looking for someone to stay at his house.

Horace's wife, Joyce, debilitated by two strokes, was in a nursing home. She could not speak or swallow. Horace visited her three or four times a day.

But he didn't like going home to an empty house.

Mary, whose husband had died in 1997, delivered newspapers for the Post. Another carrier told her Horace was looking for a housemate.

She moved in. Horace told co-workers he liked having someone else around. He continued visiting Joyce several times daily and covering Catawba College sports for the Post. Joyce died in 2002.

As the years passed, Mary says, she and Horace became constant companions — sharing a love of sports, playing bingo, going out to dinner.

Mary quit carrying papers and got a job as a cashier at Food Lion. Horace still wrote for the paper on a limited basis, often with Mary along. They visited Bill and his wife, Lesley, about once a year, she says.

Mary thought she had a companion — and a home — for life.

Horace said as much, according to his brother, C.G. Billings of Winston-Salem. He recalls Horace introducing him to Mary about 10 years ago. Horace said Mary was going to take care of him and he was going to take care of her, C.G. says — and that if all that worked out, he wanted her to have his house.

But Horace's plan unraveled after he suffered a stroke last May.

"He was in the bedroom and I was in the hall," Mary says. She heard him fall. She got him into the car and took him to Rowan Regional Medical Center.

She called Bill, "because I thought that's what I should do," she says.

Bill Billings declined to comment further for this story or to allow a Post representative to visit his father. He says the stroke left Horace confused, and Bill does not want to cause him further anxiety.

"He's my dad," Bill said. "I'm going to take care of him. He is very well cared for. He is in an excellent situation."

Mary took leave from Food Lion to care for Horace, staying by his side much of the time he was in the hospital and later when he moved to a nursing home.

The stroke affected Horace's left arm, and he cannot write. At his suggestion, Mary says, she signed his name to several checks to pay bills, have her car fixed, buy a television, get the yard mowed, pay taxes and, as a doctor suggested, make the bathroom in his house handicapped accessible so he could go home.

"He always came first," she says.

When Horace was moved from the hospital to The Laurels for rehabilitation, she was there to sign the necessary papers, she says.

During the four months he was in the Laurels, Mary says she went to the home each day to visit and help him overcome his swallowing problem to eat.

"I was worn to a frazzle, but I didn't care. He was my main concern."

Bill decided to place his father in a Charlotte nursing home. With a series of shaky X's on a document, Horace had given his son power of attorney — complete say over his medical and business affairs.

"Bill called me the day before and said, 'We're going to take him to Charlotte,' " Mary says. "He told me to get his papers and clothes together."

Mary left the house so she would not be there when Bill came by. And she went to the nursing home and watched from afar as Horace was helped into a car and driven away.

"And he was gone."

Bill told Mary she would have to move out. He put Horace's house up for sale and sold the car and furniture.

And, after he looked through his father's papers, Bill and his wife, Lesley, had Mary charged with exploitation of the elderly for writing $9,900 worth checks on Horace's account over several months.

A report of the arrest appeared in the Oct. 14 Post, with a photo of Mary looking downcast.

Gordon Hurley, a former owner of the Post and longtime friend of Horace's, first met Mary while he was visiting Horace. He saw her at the hospital with Horace several times. When he heard about the charges, he offered to help her find a lawyer.

"It's been a bad situation," Hurley says.

He said he got a chance to talk to Horace briefly on the phone and told him Mary was having some trouble. "Do what you can for her," he quotes Horace as saying.

In the weeks that ensued, Bill had Horace moved to another Charlotte nursing home and would not tell Mary where he was.

She moved in with a friend and dealt with the aftermath of the charges. She lost her job. Wachovia seized her account, and when she tried to use an ATM card, it was taken and cut up.

With David Bingham as her attorney, Mary went to court on Feb. 3 with Horace's siblings and some friends there for support.

The hearing encouraged Mary, and not just because Judge Charlie Brown dismissed charges against her.

When Bill testified, he had to reveal where his father was — Brighton Gardens in Charlotte.

Mary went to visit Horace almost immediately after the hearing. When she was asked at the home if she was a relative, she said yes and gave a false name — Emily Billings.

Horace appeared to be asleep when she walked into his room.

According to Mary, he opened his eyes and said, "There's my sweetheart."

Within minutes, security guards escorted Mary out of the building. Bill has left instructions that no one is to see his father unless he is present or gives his approval, not even Horace's siblings.

Mary has gotten in to see Horace briefly one or two times more, against Bill's wishes. And she says she's not giving up.

She's been cleared of the charges brought against her, but she has not gotten her old life back.