Currently on My Night Stand

I love to read and generally have about three books going at a time. While I am interested in the topic, I am having a hard time getting through this book. Brooke Astor, the impeccably dressed widow of the late Vincent Astor. Brooke Astor the philanthropist. Brooke Astor, the mother of Tony Marshall, the product of a troubled first marriage. For those of you who did not read the sensational headlines, Brooke's son Tony was sentenced to prison for coercing his mother to change her will while she was in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.

Brooke Astor while being a generous benefactress to many worthwhile institutions and charities, was often remote and standoffish to her only child Tony. She detested his wife Charlene. It is easy to feel sympathy for Tony, yet did that entitle him to take advantage of his mother's mental decline?

As the daughter of a father who has suffered through Alzheimer's for several years, the idea of a child taking advantage of a parent in such a vulnerable state is abhorrent to me. Unfortunately, it happens often in our society. The probate courts of our country have dockets full of similar cases. It is very sad.