A Mum and Some

They probably think ‘well she’s not been well and she’s old and stuff like that … we can get away with it. This is not happening.  If it was stranger doing something like that you know you’d expect it, but when its family. A family should be a family this one has gone rogue”.  Doreen Mann 2019

This could be described as a tragic comedy but it isn’t really that funny.

Early in 2019 my Mum, aged 89, fell seriously ill with an e-coli infection and was hospitalised for several weeks with sepsis and acute kidney failure that nearly killed her. This was followed by temporary delirium. What you are about to read is the story of the truly bizarre and troubling events that have followed. Documenting it has been therapeutic. This is not the full story; there is more but this timeline and audio recordings paint the picture very clearly. All the written quotes are verbatim.

For all that has happened in the years since Mum remains feisty, determined, courageous and well with age related issues of wear and tear, is loved by many and is happy this story is finally being told. She is not alone. In what follows you will hear from official agencies such as the Financial Ombudsman Service who investigated the attempted take over of Mum’s bank account by a rogue in our family, Social Services, the bank itself, a privately funded psychiatrist who corrected the terrible lie being told by the same rogue, the Police and Mum herself in great detail. All of it is scathing of the determined efforts made by some of her children to do Doreen Mann, our mum, grave harm while she was at her most vulnerable.

Audio recordings from 2019. This is Mum in her own words expressing her feelings about the lies that have been told in an attempt to do her and her family harm.

The opening salvo in this saga was fired when some family members got together to start a tribal vendetta against those of us called Mann. This corrosive campaign was launched by my half sister Suzanne Layton (was Peszel, pronounced ‘Peshel’) on behalf of her siblings sending a really nasty and aggressive text message to my wife Ali’s phone in August 2019 branding me a “thieving bastard” and accusing me of stealing money from my Mum. We were perplexed by this and thought it was a hoax, but alas it was much more sinister than that. Suzanne snarled away: “Title of your next book The Real Keith Mann… thieving bastard. You are no better than Anthony and he is the lowest of the low.” Oh sis! Isn’t she lovely! I used to think it really cool to have an older sister, someone to look up to, admire and be guided by and then she did this.

Suzanne Layton

Suzanne threatened in her demand sent via Ali that I must “pay mum the money back you have stolen from her…” or “we… (we Peszels think this that and the other) will call the police”! They refer often to the thoughts of the Peszel sibling hive mind as “us Peszels …” a lot too. Whoever these people are and whatever they collectively think of course they had no intention of calling the police with their non-specific nonsensical claim about a victimless crime. This was one of several absurd threats they would go on to make as they’ve sought to bully us to comply with their foolish demands.

This was a revelation. We had no idea we had people in our family with such arrogance and a thunderous disdain for their own. Meet the Peszels! Four of Mum’s six children – a self-isolated clique seeking to morally elevate itself above ‘the other’ by demonising the other. They are playground bullies fighting a lost cause.

Ali is similar to Mum, she is an empath, she is kind and caring and the mere thought of sending such a vile insult to anyone, no matter what, wouldn’t ever enter her mind. Ali is disabled and has suffered a lot of health issues over the years, as Suzanne knew when she targeted her. Suzanne was probably subconsciously projecting herself in her attack on her enemy, as is usually the way with those who shout loudest and point fingers. She knows very little about Ali or I and she certainly didn’t hear such a ridiculous claim from Mum, the only person who matters in all of this and who was equally dumbfounded by this alleged crime she was not consulted about. Furthermore, Suzanne has had precious little contact with her mum over the last decade and particularly since Mum’s ill-health when the Peszel project was launched so she couldn’t possibly know anything about anything.

For Mum, her daughter’s transformation has been painful. Of the four of them it is Suzanne of old she misses the most. Suzanne’s Keith the thief conspiracy theory was rubbished by her mum the moment she eventually bothered to involve her in this drama that was laughably claimed to be about her. This was after she had already found me guilty based on a malicious lie and passed their pre-determined sentence. As is relayed by Mum in the damning audio recording above, Suzanne tells her over the phone following what her troubled source told her to say, that “Keith is stealing money from your account.” Mum told her “Keith isn’t stealing money he has my permission”. She didn’t want to tell her that much because Mum prefers privacy and feels very strongly it is no one else’s business what she chooses to do but Mum is polite with all comers until they push their luck and she wanted to stop the lie. It didn’t work. The fact is there was never anything for them to be offended about on behalf of someone else who isn’t offended about something that didn’t happen but that didn’t really matter because that isn’t what this is about. She knew she was snookered so Suzanne replied manoeuvring her story to the new gripe that Team Peszel would adopt and bully her mum some more by raising instead to Mum that she has “other children too” who might want something or other given to them. This told of the real issues they have which they don’t even pretend to hide. And it is curious since the clique go on to claim they are superiorly above accepting gifts from their mum. Mum asks how she could possibly have known of their late-stated demands as they barely even speak to her, they communicate terribly and have been effectively absent from her life! Then and now.

             She turns to her partner “We never see her, do we?” Jim agrees.

Ali, meanwhile, having only ever received abuse from my dear sister blocked her number. She seldom blocks anyone and prefers to give a second chance but Suzanne had a mission and had no desire to be nice. Ali is a very good asset and has served Mum to perfection and Mum has for Ali too by being an emotional rock during challenges and over the years they have developed a very deep bond. Suzanne doesn’t even know how to communicate with her own mum let alone express love. Mum and Ali have an amazing relationship and understanding and they flow. I am blessed by this.

Suzanne got her instructions from her brother David “Pez” Peszel. My big brother! Due to what has become apparent as uncontrolled festering envy, he scowls when he hears my name: “I HATE him” and “I DESPISE him”. Over and over and over again. Hate is called hate for a reason and really doesn’t need to be written in capital letters. It is this heightened state of mental anguish driving this whole story. David was lovely to Ali and I just a year earlier and we both warmed to him and wanted to be close; the two of us having had little contact since we were kids. I liked David. He and his wife were gushing, they sent us Xmas cards and bought a copy of my book on my cancer journey and promoted it and appreciated my insight into vaccines on which he is now vocal. He messaged me in November 2018: “Book finished, head gone, completely gobsmacked and need time to take it all in! Well done the both of you. Love ya both too bits xx.  In another message: “Stunning read that leaves me fib smacked! Well done for ALL your hard work and conviction/dedication. Take care and love to you both xx.”

I was warmed by the feelings he had for the work we had done and was happy to have him in my life.

David and his wife, Janet, had also invited Ali and I to stay over with them in their spare room when we were in Bolton, but we never did as we moved ourselves in when we visited Mum in order to spend every moment with her. They were openly bemused by this which we were quietly bemused by. Tellingly they never invited Mum to stay over with them or even visit, or to their house warming party. David and Janet out of everyone in this story have the perfect set up for accommodating someone, like say an elderly mum who lives close by. But nah! That was the last thing on their minds. Within a matter of months all those with the surname Mann were being prodded, poked and demonised over this thing messing with David’s mental state.

David doesn’t hide that he has anger issues with a lot of people (mostly ‘of colour’ curiously) so this isn’t particularly personal except to him of course. He says he HATES me now because in the intervening few months he reasoned that the idea Mum had been financially supportive of Ali and I, as told in the book he had read when he was on the flop side and gushing about us, was unacceptable to him. The Peszels flip flop an awful lot and seem lost as to what their issues are. We’d also, and this it seems is the crux of the matter, spoilt his plan to shove our mum into a care home and take over her affairs while she was at her weakest. I don’t have the slightest hatred for those who have hurt my Mum, targeted my wife and spread lies about me but I do feel really sorry for them and hope they can one day find peace and purpose. Kindness, compassion and loyalty are natural instincts for Mum; she can’t help it. She has spent her life caring for and nursing others and has never asked for anything in return, only to be loved. It is clear that those waging this war are motivated by jealousy and cannot seem to process the loving bonds shared with the mother they do not attempt to bond with.  

It is noteworthy that David neither has nor had any idea what specifically my Mum has or had gifted me, or bought for herself or for anyone else. He knows nothing and how could he, he’s a stranger in our lives who used his belief he was right (about something normal that parents do) as a hopeless cover story for his real motive in order to let loose this wild thing within him that set off a four year long vendetta using his mum as his weapon of choice.

Dare to mention to Mum that you like an ornament or picture of hers and it’s yours if you want it. I muddied a pair of trainers while walking the dog during one extended stop over with her and she insisted on giving me £50 to get a new pair. I didn’t need it and told her they were a fiver in a charity shop and only needed a clean but she wouldn’t let it go: “I don’t need it either and I want you to have it. If you put the old ones in the wash then you will have a spare pair”. Mum actively looks for what her loved ones need and gets great pleasure from providing.  I could go on for hours with such examples going back decades and up to the present day as could anyone who knows her.

In early 2019 Mum was hospitalised and her health was set back and she needed the support of her family. She at no point needed putting into care. David & his wife Janet revealed their true selves in this moment as they jollied along daughter Stephanie and his siblings Suzanne, Stephen and Robert Peszel through a stream of disparaging and loaded comments about Mum on a family WhatsApp forum they made.

Feel the love.

“Now we believe that the social are involved, they are obviously preparing for mum to go home. They believe that mums mental status is fine? Today mum has been calling Janet, Margaret and thinks that I never see her. Sorry for the rant but we are off for a beer”. David & Janet

Absolute joke!!! Stephanie, daughter of David

“Although she still refuses food she is determined that she is going home and she does not like the staff calling her a liar”. David & Janet

“Oh dear that doesn’t sound good! Hope social worker realises she is not fit to look after herself but I doubt they’ll be concerned if she insists”. Suzanne.

“Fingers crossed”. David & Janet.

“She definitely needs 24 hour care. She is getting increasingly frustrated with carers”. David & Janet.

“You really couldn’t make this up. Are we bonkers We have spent another full day making phone calls and trying to keep mum and Jim sorted think I will book a holiday”.  David & Janet.

“Just spent an hour with Doreen and Jim and they seem happy enough.” The ever calm and rational uncle Michael

The need for a care home story was weaved by the Peszels. The theft story was weaved by the Peszels. With love and support Mum has lived perfectly well at home for four years after this, with the Peszels voluntarily absent but for their creepy ongoing surveillance commentary. On the face of it they appeared to say the right thing before this point and said they were helping but they soon started to drive Mum mad with their insensitivity and then turned on her when she stood up for herself and then abandoned her completely. As David and his wife wouldn’t help provide the support needed, they could have organised their family to step up and instead share the responsibility but the opposite happened.

The e-coli infection caused sepsis and temporary delirium which eventually eased.  It had led to traumatic hallucinations that caused emotional difficulties for Mum and Jim and was used as a Peszel excuse to publicly mock and try to lock her up at the whim of the Peszels and against her wishes.

We were advised by medics that it is normal for those suffering this kind of illness to be in an acute stage for up to 6 months after which the delirium would pass but some false memories from the hallucinations may be imprinted and linger. This means you either step up the love and the support or hide away the problem so you don’t have to bother.  One example we were later given was of a young patient who believed she had been in a terrible fire and who upon the passing of the delirium was forever traumatised by this imprinted belief she knew had happened to her and could not undo. Unconditional love, good nutrition and environmental enhancement are the best support we can offer those in need just like they once did for us. It’s in the unwritten ‘How to be Human’ contract.

David didn’t like that last calm and composed observation from a regular at Mum’s, with no agenda, so he promptly interjected to press home his thoughts for the others to think:

“Well here we go I’m not sure everyone will agree with me but I’ve insisted that the doctor comes round to see mum asap. Mum has hidden the house keys to stop anyone from entering (or leaving) and came close to setting the chair alight via the gas heater. Mum believes that Jim… (he goes into the details of the hallucinations which upon proof reading of this Mum said she wanted kept private (then and now) … Personally I don’t think mum is safe at home anymore more and needs 24 hour care. Fortunately I have a spare key!!”

“Oh my giddy aunt” Robert, who boasts of beating up women

“Oh bloody hell” Stephanie, who is foul-mouthed and abusive

“It surely is a great concern bro. Mums safety is paramount!!” Suzanne ditto

“Respite whether wanted or not does not seem like a bad idea. It looks like Jim is going to continually get it in the neck and the pair of them in my opinion are AT RISK.  I don’t think temporary fix solutions are going to help 8n the slightest as she will just revert to form on her return” Robert

Who needs enemies with children like this!

Ah, poor mum. David knew full well she would improve in time because that’s what Social Services and the doctors told him, so did he keep that essential detail a secret too in order to pursue his dark dream, or was it just as convenient for the others to lie about her in order send her off somewhere else to live out her life, out of sight out of mind? Either way it was about what they wanted.  The Peszels had decided it was care home or care home. One way ticket. They didn’t even consider any other option. David led the drive for a care home because his mum wasn’t getting on with the carers that were imposed because of his inability to provide unconditional family support! And worse. David stated after secretly listening in to his mum and Jim having a disagreement in their bedroom as she struggled with post-infectious delirium that he would be straight out of the door if any woman spoke to him like that. Indeed, soon David would happily walk away from his own mum when she was at her most vulnerable simply for correcting him regarding his lies about me. All that was needed from early 2019 was a simple rota to help our mum through the acute stage which the local Peszel children were best placed to provide. No need for Mum being moved from her home or for outsiders coming in to replace family. A care home was not called for, just care. Mum always had two offers to be looked after. Called Mann – funny enough – from those Suzanne brands as “the lowest of the low”. Suzanne bemoaned a lot that she was simply “unable to do anything” for her Mum during these weeks. NOTHING. Or in the years since. Unwilling would be more honest. It’s lies piled on excuses throughout exposing their lack of basic humanity as a dominant characteristic.

“We all know that your mum is unwilling to move from her home, but it is becoming clearer everyday that for her own (and Jims safety) that serious decisions are taken to move them to a safer environment, it is difficult and will be distressing for your mum and all, however reality has to be faced.”  

This from a relative who was teased into David’s dark dream by David’s loaded narrative. Problem Reaction Solution. Create a problem: Mum can’t cope at home – get a reaction: we must save her  – propose the solution: care home where she must stay because the Peszel children can’t be arsed and in case she may worryingly “revert to form”! What on earth does that even mean? In case she goes back to how she was pre-infection.

David  – “I have replaced the front door lock” –  and Janet were denying her a key to her own home and Janet announced they had distributed four of their shiny new keys among various people, without Mum’s consent or knowledge and she was not happy when she found out. “Bloody hell they want me in care because I want to decide who I want in my own home? Doesn’t everyone?”

Having David and his new wife coming to her home demanding, interfering, snooping, plotting to disrespect her explicit wishes and withholding her door keys was too much and this was before he rummaged through her bank account and let loose his vendetta. Communication and compassion are essential human qualities but they lack both.

“So dear David strikes once again does he? He’s evil. I’m wishing I wasn’t here because the situation is not good”. Mum.

I can’t stay in this situation knowing what they are heading to do to me”. Mum

He’s evil! Well if anyone is best placed to reach that conclusion it is his mum, the victim of his predation. Eventually this all reached its climax. Mum had had enough. On Feb 10^th 2019 David spoke publicly from his heart about his mum:

“After yet another long rant of mum this morning regarding her meds and the fact that the doctor always sees mum as “in control of her senses and looking well”  I think its best that mum can take control of her own meds as she believes that the cloak and dagger we have over her is driving her mad!”

It wasn’t a belief that those who had long been absent but were suddenly and frantically trying to wrestle control were driving her mad, it was a fact, and the whole point is that it was always best that Mum be supported in what she was comfortable with and not have the will of others dictating. This is another repetitive theme whereby doctors and social workers and loved ones were holding positive views on Mum that David simply couldn’t tolerate. In response Robert expressed his equally heartfelt emotions for his poorly aged mother:

“God help you…. Thought you were spending time sorting yourselves out. Think we all know where mum is concerned you can’t win once she gets something in her head and that has nothing to do with infections.”

Can you feel the love? Then Janet announces that the two of them will be unavailable to feed the narrative until further notice. And just over one week later with these people temporarily out of the way it was clear to us that Mum was demonstrably happier and her health improving. According to Michael:

“This site has gone rather quiet lately but alls well. Downstairs is the norm now. All in all I’ve found things to be more relaxed of late.”

Our mum is the oldest remaining member of our large family and is not someone who likes conflict, especially not with her family of who she is very proud (mostly). She is a private and self-sufficient soul who doesn’t like speaking about her very personal health struggles and other private affairs, so the Peszel’s running commentary about her private life has been a deeply disrespectful intrusion that has caused distress. They talked throughout without the slightest understanding or empathy of Mum’s ‘inevitable’ and seemingly hopeful deterioration and broadcast publicly her internal struggles.

I would speak to Mum almost every day when she needed me sometimes easily for 5 hours and found it a pleasure.  At the time we were 300 miles away from her, we’d visit her for lengthy stays and help keep her comfortable in her own home as per her wishes. I’m not blowing my own trumpet here by the way and I didn’t plan to go on about any of this in public, but I can see clearly as I watch this play out that I’m good at being the son of a mum, which deepens the Peszel’s hatred of me. All they can do now is cling to a desperate hope that some kind of redemption or ‘victory’ might come from trying to lower my status through name calling and lies to some place closer to theirs, where we might be seen as similarly shit.

David’s next big move a few months later was to make Mum’s private banking information available to the other Peszels after snooping through 5 years of her transactions and gossiping about the enemy within. In Mum’s words “the private affairs of others are none of his business”. He didn’t bother to ask his mum who managed her account or how she spent her money and only involved her in his scam long after he tried to deceive others first. He then chose to ignore the truth when he finally got around to involving his fake victim in his story. This deception was very deliberate and fuelled their evil narrative about Mum being robbed behind her back. By me, the son she entrusted with her life and could trust. They knew that by asking her directly if she knew I had access to her account would spoil their plans so they simply didn’t bother and instead sought to fool her with their dishonest claims of fraudulent transactions. His rolling pledge years later is to ride roughshod over his mum’s privacy and piss on her grave when she’s gone. To their twisted thinking she has to be dead or incapable of responding before they feel they can maybe get away with spinning the yarn. This disgusting plot is all they have to cling to to somehow absolve themselves for failing so terribly in looking after the mum who brought them into the world and who loves them unconditionally.

The bizarre collective demand on me to return something unspecific to my Mum by people I barely know sent to a third-party phone as some kind of defensive protection would evolve into a generalised disapproval of Keith Mann when their story was rubbished by Mum. Suzanne and Robert plotted to phone their mum on the same day out of the blue in August 2019 specifically to harass her with the story warrior bro Dave had concocted and sold to them. This barrage of abuse from her gullible and willing offspring was the most difficult aspect for Mum and listening back to our recording is heart-breaking. What did their mum do to these people who are barely ever in touch and clearly couldn’t care less for her well being?  

“It gets frustrating. I try not to think about it. I’m very, very disappointed in David.” Mum

David’s involvement has been purely self-serving but it hasn’t served him very well at all. The truth spoilt everything he had fantasised about and unhinged him to the point that he literally abandoned his own mum and stopped speaking to her because he couldn’t get his way. This achieved nothing whatsoever and over four years later the envy festers away, worse than ever, with no end in sight. Likewise, Robert: not a kind word, not a card, not a care in the world for how his mum is managing since he was unable to bully her to comply with David’s demands. He does leap forward to lob his hate grenades in response to the intelligence relayed from the boots on the ground though and he clearly enjoys that. Stephen never bothered much anyway beyond the odd Xmas card and distance is no excuse with the technology available. Suzanne will also be remembered for not just letting her mum down terribly at the time of her greatest need but for going that one step further. It’s not as if they each randomly decided that this awful bevaviour towards their own mum was an appropriate way to behave, instead they actually conspired together to do what they have done as soon as they deemed she was at her most vulnerable and, they hoped, would be unable to stop them. I’ve been on this ride with my Mum for 57 years. I think that is pretty cool, I feel blessed and I’m going to enjoy the rest of it. She has been there for me throughout and I would find it intolerable to not be close to her now and doing for her what she needs me to do. Each to their own I say, we are all different and it’s not my place to judge that’s for the owner to deal with.

“We were very very close she just stopped communicating I couldn’t give any explanation.” Mum referring to Suzanne

“I don’t shed any tears for any of them that have turned nasty. I don’t shed any tears, when I die if they have any conscience they might think why was I such a bastard. Years ago I would have been really sad about it.” Mum

“I just want to talk to my family, that’s what I want. I just love my family even those that I don’t see. So many of them I gave birth to. I do regret the family not being close any more.” Mum

Mum knows best of course and her wishes must be respected, but “David who?”, as she had longingly referred to him for over a decade prior to all of this as he regularly drove by her home without so much as waving, has shown her no respect. This is what she means when she says she never sees him. He and his team clearly needed something to cling to in order to service this agenda, so the charge against me moved on again and co-defendant(s) were added. There would next be an instruction handed down from the Lord Peszels that even accepting gifts from our mum is not permitted. As Stephen wrote to the other three Peszels and Anthony in a WhatsApp bitching party about the enemy: “Time for those who ‘borrowed’ to pay back…  all those who have borrowed or taken gifts of money from her!” Blimey! What date does the diktat begin? What do we say to Mum when we kneel before her and hand her back her gifts? Is there a slogan or chant? ‘On behalf of the Lords Peszel I here thee forgo’? Will she be expected to take these returnable gifts with her when she dies? Are they totally bonkers, as David pondered? Does anyone care what Mum thinks about all of this? Read on and the questions answer themselves.  To date none of the holier than thou have returned to their mum a single thing they have been gifted or ‘borrowed’ throughout their lives. Double standards are a big thing in this story.

Mum’s generosity and kindness is effortless and feeds her soul. The last thing she (or anyone?) would want is for her kindness to be rejected and handed back or to have someone else telling her to be something she isn’t. It takes quite some arrogance to expect I or anyone would do anything so absurd on their behalf. Absurd is a common theme here too.

Robin now identifying as Robert Peszel swiftly offered his updated, ever flexible justification making it a little wider so my guilt would be secured, by announcing that “Keith has stolen. Embezzled or ‘been given… ”. Sounds like an open and shut case from the stranger in another land with a sudden fixation with someone else’s business. Imagine these people on a jury!  David went on to promise that, while proof of their “stolen” preference may be a dream for now, he promises they will prove it “when the time is right.” Hmm! When is the right time to expose this heinous crime against an elderly lady? If true it’s immediately of course but he couldn’t spread his tale then and still can’t because his imaginary victim would expose him as the liar he is. As she already did. You have to briefly entertain the dark side of your mind to see what they are alluding to here with this obsessive ‘right time’ countdown. Since David, Robert and Suzanne had concluded their investigation and claimed to have “all the evidence” they needed to pass sentence back in 2019 and are claiming to be doing all this to save their mum from my predation, there can be only one reason why they intend to wait so long before sharing their story around “the family” members they dream of fooling with a view to somehow ruffling my feathers.  One clue is that they are still waiting for the right time four years later and it could be quite a few years more. Their “evidence” is bank statements showing how Mum spent some of her money 5 – 10 years ago. That’s it! Literally that’s what he is clinging onto to make himself feel a bit better about his angry state but like the rest of their story it makes absolutely no sense. There is no joined up thinking in any of this. Their desire to continually disrespect Mum affects me in no way whatsoever other than stirring up my disgust while their treachery and deceit of course hurts her and sinks them further into the abyss. And the mind boggles.

The ‘right time’ in their warped minds lays bare the evil Mum feels is at the heart of all this and will become clear if you haven’t already figured it out. Mum figured it as soon as she read what they were saying about this long-anticipated wait for the right time. “Yeah, when I’m dead”.  Yep. She understands her Peszel children even if she never sees or hears from them as they have broadcast their toxicity for the last four years. No matter how else I describe their actions as toxic or twisted or disgusting Mum will correct me with “evil”. Their hope is that when Mum is no longer here or able to rubbish their claims again they can shit stir without her objecting and correcting and involving the authorities further to deal with her toxic offspring. Aside her own stance she blew apart their agenda to the Financial Ombudsman, her bank, the Police, Social Services and even directly to her callous offspring Suzanne and David. All of this is documented here. Seriously they are watching and waiting for their mum to die, or lose the capacity to respond, so they can use her to feed their hate campaign. But her words and their actions will haunt them. Listen to what she has to say about all this:

Audio recordings from 2019

David had been given both barrels by his mum when he waved his booty of bank statements at her back in August 2019 weeks after he launched his campaign behind her back and begun listing all her transactions trying to tell her this was his evidence of me deceiving her in the hope he could turn her against me. It was a disastrous effort but from here onwards these cringeworthy actions have only piled up. It’s unfathomable that he actually thought this would work since he knew he was lying and Mum knew he was lying and she is not the bumbling idiot he was hoping to manipulate. But this is all about David. It is perhaps telling that Mum quickly appointed a solicitor to register me with Lasting Power of Attorney for her protection from him once he’d revealed his dark agenda and went ahead with it regardless of the facts. Mum’s loyal partner Jim was gushing with pride when he relayed to us how Mum reacted to David’s ambush: “Oh, she told him alright!”. Minutes after she told him to stop the lies David walked away from his mum announcing he was forever washing his hands of her! With his lies exposed was it game over? Not a chance because that’s not what this is about. David was just getting started. Peszel comments through 2020 – 2023 show that they are still impatiently waiting, waiting, waiting for the right time to do their thing. For the first time in three and a half years David happened to stop by his mum’s with his sister within days of making this latest rolling pledge late in 2022.  Not to apologise or bring flowers or return the stolen bank statements he had weaponised but to check on the status of the obstacle to superstardom and the wishful demise of his younger brother’s reputation he dreams of. By further trashing his own reputation!  You have to laugh.

 “Why is the only time I see him when he comes to interfere with something?”  Mum

It is fascinating to me how it is such a breeze for these people to absolve themselves of all responsibility of care and compassion for their own mum while pouring out obnoxious instead.  On the one hand they complain about how stubborn and difficult to control Mum is and virtue signal about shoving her into a care home for her own good, while at the same time claiming that Ali & I have been “controlling her for years” and that she and Jim are so afraid of the two of us that they have to do whatever we demand! Some children have imaginary friends they play with others have imaginary enemies they play with. Jim, as it happens thought the world of us both and asked us if we would move in with them to help them and ward off David, Janet and the annoying carers. Jim often expressed to Mum how he saw me like a son and admired the Mum in me. If they ever spoke to their mum or knew the first thing about her and the love of her life they would know that, but deep down they probably do it just doesn’t fit their narrative. 

Every bit of this nonsense has been an ill-conceived, badly executed attempt at throwing anything at the fan in the hope that something sticks enough for them to justify to themselves their appalling behaviour. I do actually feel another book coming on but this will do for now.

And it teaches us about the actors in this theatrical performance and how little they know those they decided to make their enemies. My life story revolves around liberating animals, myself and the truth which is the opposite of control. I have written two books detailing this approach to my thinking. This need for controlling Mum has come up a lot in their hopeful character assassination of me with them suggesting they needed to secure Power of Attorney before Mum could do so in her own best interest.  David’s sinister obsession with grabbing Power of Attorney for the mum he couldn’t care less about has also been repeated over and over and over again between 2019 and the present day revealing that this is a big interest of his. This is another hopeless fantasy as Lasting Power of Attorney is something one secures for oneself and not something others can appoint for you for themselves. Mum was horrified to hear of this talk but she is comforted by the fact he can do nothing to fulfil his desire.

“Make sure they don’t get anywhere near. Don’t let them get anywhere near.” Mum

Years earlier the siblings had singled out Anthony as their target and I was tolerated apparently. Lucky me! But then they had a collective head spin and decided to focus on me instead while assuring him that they now forgave him for breaking their bonkers code of conduct: “We are not bothered about you Anthony (for accepting money from his mum over the years) its him”. They had been full of disapproval of him to start with but in 2019 they had turned on me instead. They have since then relentlessly messaged Anthony trying to convince him how much I hate him and that I am a selfish, cruel and heartless thief tormenting an old lady. These people are very special with very special needs. ‘SPeszels’! Anthony is open about his mental health struggles and suffers from anxiety which, added to the deep disappointment of having family he cared about doing all of this, was not easy for him to deal with. This evil tactic was of course intended to create more strife for our mum and more hatred the way David prefers. However, it had the opposite effect because it was far too transparent and Anthony knows his mum and me and they know nothing about any of us. He was not open to being manipulated to turn on his family so they flip flopped back again and re-appointed Anthony back to their hate list.

Their dream included the sick idea of isolating me by getting Anthony on their side so they could imagine their nefarious plan to design Mum’s destiny with less obstruction. When that looked like it was failing, desperate as they are, they then decided to deploy the reliably uncouth and foul-mouthed daughter of David. They deduced that Stephanie was the best foot soldier in the next round as she and Anthony had a close relationship prior to all of this. The Stephanie bulldozer deployment didn’t last long before David urgently wanted to know why Anthony had pushed her away and blocked her from verbally abusing him online. He told him straight “Because she’s a bitch”.   

Our wonderful Mum is fiercely loyal to those she loves. She rallied her full support after I was diagnosed with cancer and chose my own path. The Peszels are Mum’s first marriage offspring, now retired and seemingly unsettled and are well aware of the healthy loving relationship I have with my Mum. This for some reason they cannot tolerate. I have spoken to Suzanne maybe half dozen times in 30 years. I generally have fond memories of my time with Suzanne way back when she was more my kind of human. Suzanne and Stephen were the only ones to respond when a few years earlier I asked for sibling support in setting up a natural treatment protocol for our Mum as she aged and we saw issues pending. And again, when I was diagnosed it was only those two of the four of them who contacted me. Stephen stood out a mile. He was great, like a brother who showed only kindness and support. Suzanne basically said she was sorry for my news. She did eventually suggest to David that he let go of his obsessive hate campaign once it became clear to her the whole thing was fabricated and wouldn’t have a happy ending but that fell on deaf ears. However, still no word of apology from her for any of us and she still isn’t there for her mum. I have nothing good to say about Robert. He used to stalk me on social media when I used it, adding his standard toilet comments to many of my posts until I blocked him. He tells the team I’m avoiding using social media these days for fear the Peszels will use it to expose me! Can he really think this story makes me look like trash and covers them in glory? I want everyone to hear it. Delusion is a Peszel thing. Just like now there was no interest in debate or intelligent conversation with Robert just a vulgar personality expressed in name calling and abuse. Robert presents himself in this campaign like the Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company Peszel blowing his trumpet to the sound of the attack and he seems to revel in the conflict they are having with themselves. David needs him.

David, we had much more contact with David in between 2017 and early 2019 when he started to pop in on his mum a little more than was normal, typically when we were staying over. We hadn’t really noticed at the time that it was more to do with us than his mum and naively trusted he would do the right thing by her following her illness but instead, just like a predator scenting a wounded animal he swooped in to ravage it. Ever since he realised his intention to steal Mum’s freedom wasn’t going to happen, he has caused her no end of angst and the deepest disappointment and he has acted both immorally and criminally to serve his own ends.  Unconsciously reflecting self through pointing fingers at others is what some people do. According to the ever wandering narrative of the troubled Peszel posse, they have disowned their own mum because they told themselves that I had either “stolen. Embezzled or ‘been given” some as yet undefined gift or gifts from her once upon a time in a land far, far away. Yep, crazy as it sounds that’s it. They knew from the start which it was, however integrity is absent where envy abounds. And because of Mum’s natural human instincts and refusal to comply with their awful intentions they collectively decided to go one step further and turn on her when she was at her most vulnerable.

David lived around the corner from Mum for decades and Suzanne was close by too but they appear to live on another planet. They essentially behaved like she didn’t exist until she reached that vulnerable stage of life and ill-health set in when they opted to subject her to a calculated campaign of psychological warfare.

Ali didn’t rise to Suzanne’s chavvy introduction of herself, instead she replied politely via text to clarify that she was way off the mark. Ali is protective of me. Loyal to the Peszel crusade Suzanne chose to ignore this and instead instil Ali as a liar in their Jackanory story. It’s noteworthy that no-one involved in this toxic Peszel project sought the go ahead from Mum to wage a vendetta full of fake self-righteous anger about the business of others, of which they knew nothing. This further reveals the true intention was conflict and we may judge the intention by the outcome.

When we told Mum what Suzanne had said to Ali about me being the lowest of the low and a thieving bastard and so on she looked mad as hell and bellowed, “WHAT! But I told you to.”  Yep. Told me to! When I was diagnosed she had told me to use her spare funds to buy whatever we needed. In fact, she often asked why we don’t use “some of that money (you’d think she were a millionaire but her pension is all she has) for a holiday after everything that has happened”, referring to our health issues. We never did. And as she often stresses her business is no one else’s business. Like duh! She went on: “Suzanne is nothing to do with it so David has been gobbing again to Suzanne. Why don’t they mind their own business? If they are concerned why aren’t they concerned the rest of the year?“

Good question. The answer is that they aren’t in the least bit concerned. As saddened as she is by all of this Mum still loves them but has no problem exploring this dark comedy when we talk and laugh about it. Mum is very pragmatic. It’s a survival mechanism. If she didn’t have me things would be very different. My status in Mum’s mind has been elevated to fantastic heights thanks to the Peszel’s failings. This is the opposite of what they set out to achieve!

Mum insisted on kitting me out for my re-entry into the world when I went public after we pushed back the cancer following years of self-imposed confinement, research and development. She dug deep to figure out what she could help Ali with as she recognised Ali had done so much in helping me unravel the mess I was in with cancer and still had her own issues. Ali told Mum my recovery was all that mattered to her. Ali’s health bombed out in 2008 and we got stuck in Bolton for nine long weeks of doctors prodding and poking hopelessly. Mum was a rock, gave over her bed, fed and nursed her daughter-in-law.

The Peszel role in our mum’s story has been all about them. Initially the focus of their efforts went on making out she had lost capacity to cope during illness and used this as an excuse to take over her life on their behalf. David knew what he was doing was wrong. It was cruel, sly and deceptive and could only hurt his mum. Mum, conversely, represents the purest form of love and treats all others with respect even these wayward children of hers. Or at least she would if they ever contacted her. She thanks me endlessly for being me and Ali too who she is fiercely protective of. It made Mum seethe when she heard that Suzanne had targeted Ali in attacking me and my opinion plummeted too. Mum said to herself as she stared as the floor:

“That I will never forgive”.

David became quite frantic, obsessive and irrational in his efforts. Mum is a very private person and was horrified to hear that he had been snooping, making up lies and sharing her private affairs with other strangers to fuel his campaign. Mum asks: “What did it have to do with him anyway? They appear nice people when they come around but they are not nice people. I just be me and eventually they go”.

The Peszels were a product of Mum’s first marriage, Anthony and I the second. In between, some 50 years ago, three of the Peszels were sadly taken into care for varying times and their mum wasn’t responsible. I’m not entirely sure how that fits into this story anyway as there was no obvious antagonism or issues in the decades since, but in 2019 David introduced it into conversations that were meant to be about his poorly mum’s needs. There are hints that this may be a justification in thir minds for seeking to ‘care home’ their mum. A warped attempt at isolating and institutionalising a scapegoat for punishmen would make them judge, jury and executioners. I have to say it seems more likely and just as tragic that it could just be their way of absolving themselves of their duty of care which they are demonstrably not very good at.

Their envy is all consuming. In their irrational rants about me they mock my open minded approach to treating cancer and my “alternative lifestyle”, which includes protecting my Mum and respecting her wishes and not creating conflict with others. I also have no room for hatred in my alternative lifestyle. Robert calls me a “Weasel” and David calls me a “shit”. Suzanne, who told her fellow plotters that Mum “has always supported Keith’s alternative lifestyle”, nevertheless prefers the branding, “thieving bastard”. David’s daughter can’t really make up her mind as to what is most suitable to articulate her spirited hatred so she mixes up a random collection of expletives such as “cunt” and “rat” “piece of shit” and “selfish prick” in her incomprehensible commentaries. They instructed I “get a job” since working tirelessly to heal from a terminal diagnosis and being a carer is not what the Peszels consider of any value. I write books too and that comes up a lot in their mocking sessions. Chip on the shoulder? My Mum’s financial support was primarily to help save my life. She was one of many who helped including some wonderful people in our family. How does someone object to a mum doing that for one of her children? Robert the Peszel mocked my choice of recovering my health with some ignorant comments about me using “snake oil”. He tactlessly suggested that I could try it on Mum to help her to live longer. Not even smart or involved enough to know that Mum doesn’t have lymphoma. And that I wouldn’t use snake oil because of the nature of some of the work I do. And because there is no evidence snake oil has any value in lymphoma. And that what his mum needs more than anything is the love and support of her family. It’s all very, very tasteless and steeped in ignorance. When someone resorts to character assassination and name calling they reveal it’s all they have .

David & Mum. It looked like a normal loving mother/son relationship but inside the son there was something festering

Until David lost all sense of reason there were no obvious signs of anything untoward, aside his general lack of interest in spending time with his mum. However, since then they have collectively talked mostly about, and worked toward, dividing and punishing those closest to their mum and disrespecting her when she’s gone. When she needed them most, they instead found all the time in the world for a family feud using her as their platform.  Each of them must at some point wonder why they have done all this and to what end.

“It’s been a pretty stressful day so I don’t really want to talk to David because David right now doesn’t make it any better… I think I’m getting to the point now where I’m ready to explode. I don’t want to fight with any of my kids I don’t really know what his problem is.” Mum

He doesn’t even know! Suzanne bemoaned to her siblings of her mum that “she wont cooperate with the authorities” regarding their fictional story. Except that she did cooperate with the authorities as we will see later. Suzanne was never going to report to the police that her jealous brother had been rooting through their mum’s private affairs and that the four of them, distant and uninterested as they are, suddenly collectively felt left out of something. They observed that Mum won’t say a bad word about me, no matter what strangers might tell her to say. She says what she sees and she saw through their game. She told one official regarding Ali and I: “They know whatever decision they make I agree. And of the local Peszels: There are a couple of members of the family that is a no no. Not because I have had a fight with them but because I don’t trust them.”

With the care home scheme scuppered David and his wife drove home their desired outcome to Social Services with a view to imposing controls and confusing electronic gadgets on Mum against her wishes and without her agreement and then were not present to see the negative impact they were having. This again was in place of him and his doing the right thing. Instead David twisted the story to use the failing of this approach to attack me for correcting things. These useless tools would irritate the hell out of her and one actually made matters worse by locking in the medication she was on.  Mum and I made it perfectly clear she did not want them. There was never any understanding or instinct for the kind of love, and compassion, empathy and patience required when dealing with the elderly and ill health. Or anyone else come to that. Belittling, instructing and mockery don’t cut it.

The basket case story was ramped up now too as he encouraged Social Services to medicate/sedate her – with Aripiprazole an anti-psychotic Alzheimer’s drug – by banging on about how “difficult and aggressive” and unmanageable she was. Mum had temporary delirium and for the record she did not have Alzheimer’s. This poison had a very negative emotional and physical effect on Mum and caused her to drift off to sleep during the day in the middle of conversations, something she had never done and something which Jim expressed worried him. Of course David wouldn’t know this since he never spent any length of time there to see the impact of his actions and didn’t really care to make such enquiries. David instead complained in these cringe worthy conversations with his siblings how I was “interfering” with Mum’s medication making it sound like I was seeking to do her harm as he protected her in that SPeszel way. As it happens Ali and I had attended a medical review in Bolton with Mum and the consultant and we all agreed this medication should be removed immediately. We ignored David’s wants, discussed the impact on Mum and referenced some of the science we had dug out:

The scientific literature warns us: the “effectiveness and safety (of Aripiprazole) is unknown. Aripiprazole was found to induce sedation… Should only be used in selected patient populations resistant to non-pharmacological treatment with persistent or severe psychotic symptoms… and in which the symptoms lead to significant morbidity, patient suffering and potential self-harm.” None of which applied to Mum. It’s experimental. “The FDA issued an advisory warning in 2005 that atypical antipsychotics were associated with a 60% – 70% increased risk of death compared with placebo.” And it’s lethal.

“Non pharmacological treatment may include environmental modifications, such as music, white noise, animals and plants; behavioural management techniques, structured activities and recognisable schedules, massage and exercise.”

Not only did David do none of the above but the electronic gagets cut access to her precious music and he has purposefully kept himself and his family away from his mum for four years and more (aside the odd snooping Stephanie visit) while only creating anxiety. With the full support of loved ones Mum was soon to be discharged by the Mental Health Team and once the self-serving shit stirrers had abandoned her she improved considerably, against Peszel apparent hopes and expectations. Anthony told us emotionally in late 2019 soon after the poison was removed and the effects wore off: “I’ve got my mum back!” David wanted others to believe she would deteriorate rapidly and worked to that end, but Mum is in safe hands now and is relaxed.

Soon after David went to his eager siblings with his opening plotline about Mum’s bank account I called him wanting to know what he was playing at. He refused to speak to me. Why? Same reason he wanted his mum kept out of the story he was spinning about us around a specific desire for outing, shaming and exposing something or other to deflect from his failings. Given their behaviour this thinking is incredibly ironic. He did get conciliatory messages from Ali at this time who is fiercely protective of me and doesn’t like conflict. She was aiming to alleviate his self-inflicted distress and end the madness. He carried on regardless. As can be heard in the recordings above Ali said to Mum: “I told him that is how you are together and he said that he just didn’t believe me, oh, ‘I am not buying it sorry’”. Mum says sarcastically: “Oh he is not buying it, oh dear why doesn’t he just either get on the phone or come and ask”. Keith: “Well there you go. What is your opinion? What’s your story?” Mum: “About which bit?” Keith: “About who uses your account”. Mum looks incredulous and demands: “I GAVE YOU PERMISSION!” She gave me permission. In actual fact she insisted. I have never asked for or demanded a single thing from my Mum. Should you need break from my chatter here she is again saying it as it is:

Audio recordings from 2019

His deception was exposed in 2019 by the very person he was using and claimed to be protecting, who was never asked if she needs his interference. Yet, seemingly oblivious to the idiocy of his behaviour, he persists to this day rambling on about his deep hatred of me while he spins around in circles with his fingers in his ears referring to ‘the big day’ when his mum dies and his dream of outing me arrives.

Another thing David chose to ignore when rooting were all of Mum’s own spends from her own bank account on herself. A good thing you might think. But what he did was add up everything he saw she had spent over the years and told his siblings and anyone else that was pliable enough that I had somehow stolen all of it! Simple mathematics.  A case in point, of which there were many, related to an iPad Mum bought for herself that David added to his fantasy list of ‘stolen goods’ I was to be shamed for. Irony abounds, since as it happens Mum actually gave David her surplus iPad soon after she got this new one when he wasn’t so toxic around her and even commented to us that he thought it silly that she had bought herself a new one while the old one worked! And I don’t even like them! David complains to Anthony in a later incoherent ramble on a family WhatsApp group that he – and he alone – has never had any gifts from his mum throughout his 60 odd years and told how he felt he had been ‘left out’. It’s jealousy pure and simple. Jealousy is irrational, erratic and self-destructive and it can lead to acts of evil.

This WhatsApp group ‘About Mum’, they set up as it all started to go weird in 2019 was for the four Peszel siblings, Anthony, Ali and I. Ali and I were banned within a week and off they went. It would then become an upgraded less public platform for the objectionable quartet to vent their newly emerging/decades old grievances/fantasies to each other without other family members listening in and to go on to attack me some more for a random selection of them.

In David’s introduction to his flock on this forum he proclaimed “I have reluctantly agreed to take third party control of her bank” because, he cautioned, there were “lots of questions that need answering” regarding Mum’s private financial affairs. He didn’t bother discussing this honestly with his mum. Further, he added comfortingly, his wife Janet “has reluctantly taken on sorting out mum and Jim’s pension and benefit issues with the DWP and council”.  By this he means her becoming DWP appointee and collecting Mum’s pension. Janet had also inexplicably appointed herself as Mum’s next of kin with Social Services. Someone who had only known Mum for a very short time had almost taken total control of her affairs in the months after she fell ill!

What did Mum think of all this? She didn’t get a good feeling for Janet anyway and like the rest of the Peszel ideas in action she never agreed to any of them and was not at all impressed when she found out. I must say from my observations Janet was the only Peszel who expressed any humanity in their chats and generally seemed a much more positive energy than the siblings. We recorded the call the next day when Mum was asked by the DWP if she was happy to hand over control to Janet who had booked an appointment to get papers signed:

“OHHHH NOOO, NO NO!  They are not getting me to sign. What do they want me to sign now? Well they can forget it. No way, no way at all. All they will do is rise my anger again.” The highly amused DWP lady chuckled and said Mum’s views had been made perfectly clear!

“What has my business to do with Janet anyway? David says he wants to take all my affairs over just to make sure. I say if you think your mother is a raving bloody lunatic he can think again… For Christ’ sake just leave me alone they are driving me mad.” Mum to Keith

The efforts that followed weren’t reluctant they were downright frantic. Stephen, whose aging mum he has been unnaturally distant from for decades, almost instantly added his piece to the narrative about his mum’s finances according to David, pondering thoughtfully how it was “so sad and concerning. I wonder where her money went. I’m sure you have some ideas.”  Wink wink. David had ideas alright but way above his station! Suzanne was next in line promptly contributing her heartfelt concern to the Peszel cauldron that the mum she popped in to see for an hour about once a year, “could do without discrepancies with her finances”. How on Earth do strangers know what discrepancies in someone else’s bank account are? David said. Who told David? David. The shit stirring pack leader assured her that “whatever it takes I will deal with it”. He never did because Mum wrestled back her account from him. And dear Robert, dear, dear Robert was promptly in there rabble rousing with more fighting talk: “Ding Dong round 12, Don’t pull any punches.”  This sounds for all the world like a gang of mindless bullies appointing themselves as vigilantes on behalf of someone else to serve their own ends.

Anthony hung around on the WhatsApp group but they were using him and he removed himself once he was sufficiently sickened by their lack of compassion and empathy. Each time he asked of them why there was never any conversation regarding Mum’s wishes and why they did nothing to actually help or simply mention Mum in any respectful way he was met with a deafening wall of silence or another rant about me! This was all so weird. Near the end he said what he saw “We were all meant to be 1 from the same mum but I never hear mum being put 1^st so that shows me even more what this is all about”. Robert replied with more of his verbal diarrhoea about me and some sickly back slapping of the pack leader for stirring all this up. None of us in the sights of the Peszel clan had any notion of such a bonkers group-think mentality until they launched their feud. Prior to this in 2019 Mum was very proud of them, loved to have contact with them and knew about their lives. She had not the foggiest idea any of this was brewing. They have deliberately created a huge void in her life and changed everything.

David to this day obsessively shares his whimsical dream of lowering my reputation but he’s yet to conjour up anything plausible to help himself with this. In fact, he is only achieving the exact opposite! While having callously disrespected his mum he seeks to convince others it is me behaving in this way. It’s baffling. Thinking alternatively, as I clearly do, if I were in his sorry state I would have sought to elevate my relationship with my Mum to the object of my envy. During this time of heighted Peszel anger I’ve been hospitalised several times with serious infections and I have been caring for my wife who has been through extensive orthopaedic surgeries. I’ve been dealing with Mum’s and Jim’s doctors who I spoke to almost every day for 9 weeks while Jim was in hospital during Autumn 2022, arranging deliveries and visitors for them, liaising with carers, staying over, visiting hospital or speaking to my Mum daily, providing emotional support and practical advice for them both and consistently on stand-by to do whatever needs doing to make life easy for my Mum, and happy to do so. And so much more as time has gone on. Meanwhile my older absent brother David has purposefully and completely washed his hands of his mum. His sole contribution in his mum’s life during all this has been to send his daughter over occasionally to snoop and look for something to blame me for not doing or doing from 300 miles away, to use to try and soil my reputation and cause division in the family. Dear God!    

These people certainly didn’t inherit this from Mum. She’s independent, free thinking and kind. She calls me or Ali, Anthony or her brother Mike when she needs something or wants to update us on anything or just to talk. The shit stirrers are background chatter with malicious intentions.

Robert, in bullyboy Robert Peszel fashion cynically poked his nasty at Ali too, by accusing her of ruthlessly benefiting from Mum’s kindness. Mum has always stood by Ali and everyone else she loves and of course my healing brings the greatest joy to them both but the Peszels find this worthy of their derision. Robert objected to that so much so that he announced he had “lost all respect” for Ali for not rejecting Mum’s wishes. So, the story they made up about me said to them that Ali must have benefited from it in some way and was therefore guilty by association. Beam me up! He doesn’t even know Ali or his own mum and is in no position as a self-confessing abuser of women to talk about respect. Mum has so much love and respect for Ali that she refers to her as her daughter. Indeed one produce supplier called Mum to say her daughter had been in touch to place an order on her behalf, Mum promptly responded to say “That will be Ali as my daughter doesn’t do that kind of thing”.

Those here stirring a fight with me weren’t previously present in my life during my cancer journey except for Stephen. His first wife had used her inquiring mind to heal herself naturally of cancer and he understood. He was generous and considerate then but has since been sucked into David’s playground hate group, much to Mum’s dismay. Mum initially blamed Janet for David’s behaviour but that was wishful thinking. This is all about David. I’m disappointed in Stephen too. Ali believes in Stephen and trusts he has kindness in his heart and will see the light and make peace. He was quickly recruited to join their campaign and turned on me. David benefitted from someone else to use against his enemies but did it benefit Stephen? I don’t think so. Mum is baffled by the other two children as well, of whom she has expressed no ill-feeling, only love, confusion and deep disappointment. Suzanne was once close to her mum, she should have always been there and then stepped up a gear once Mum’s sisters had all passed on and the precious girly talk and reminiscing evaporated. And when ill-health fell upon her. And then again when Mum was in mourning following the passing of Jim. That is what I did and I know Mum would have benefitted greatly from the support of her only daughter, and the others of course, but we don’t all hold such values.

No surprise that dear Ali stepped up to fill the loving daughter missing link. Ali’s love and admiration for our mum is palpable and she expresses it often. They could both teach these Eastenders-like trouble causers a thing or two about kindness, respect and unconditional love.

Cynically, using Mum’s temporary post infectious delirium, David had briefly conned her into believing he had discovered that her bank account was being defrauded and that he therefore needed to “closely monitor” things on her behalf. You see stuff like this on Rogue Traders and Crimewatch.  The reality is Mum’s account was in no danger until David invited himself to take it over.  Back then she had no known reason to distrust him but she was still unhappy with him taking control of her affairs and soon after told bank staff she felt “coerced and bullied” to comply. “The last time I went David insisted that WE go to the bank. That’s when he wanted to take over power of attorney.”

David knew that neither Mum nor her bank had ever had any concerns about fraud. Only when he slivered onto the scene was that plot proposed.  

Persuading the bank to add him as third-party mandate he was now able to control her finances to his desire and even briefly secured his very own cash point card with his name on it! Mum never wanted this. His deception was that his poor mum was no longer able to make her own decisions for herself except to decide that “David who” should make them all for her! This is just priceless and was of course another of his lies and soon proven to be so as she reflected, pawed through her bank statement for herself looking for the fraud and realised she had been duped. She now realised she could no longer trust him. This will be in Suzanne’s words one of Mum’s “other children” helping himself to something belonging to someone else. She asked me to help her remove him from her account. “They’ve taken over my bloody bank account and everything. And now they trying to take over my life I think.”

They want to project me as the devil in disguise while they play it out in the open!

To get ahead of the plotters’ sinister plans we arranged a consultant psychiatrist to independently document Mum’s mental capacity. She sailed through it. “Mrs Mann gave a good history of her background and the children she has, their names, ages and where they all lived.” She would probably fail on that question now as she would say she appears to have just two children! “The assessment decision is specific and Mrs Mann was able to understand and communicate her wishes in an appropriate manner regarding who she would trust to look after her finances and health if she were unable.”

She was instructing solicitors, the bank, other agencies, officials and loved ones as to her wishes. She was clear that David should no longer have any involvement. When he heard that Mum had booked an appointment with her bank to undo the Devil’s deeds and remove him from her account, the penny dropped that she was onto him and he flipped out. Literally. At this pivotal stage you would expect his claim of altruistic motives to shine bright as he reflected on his ‘errors’ regarding me and his mum and would ask for forgiveness. That would have been the logical, reasonable thing to do. Instead, the real David emerged from behind the veil and he shamelessly broadcast his real agenda. So let’s translate for the uninitiated another interpretation of the crazy Peszel narrative, which they don’t even believe themselves.

First, he “reluctantly” cancelled Mum’s appointment on his behalf. Then, reluctant to give up the bank account he had “reluctantly” taken over, David “reluctantly” rushed to Mum’s, marched upstairs after asking Jim where her handbag was and “reluctantly” took without consent her bank card from her bag in her bedroom wardrobe! I’m the baddie and he’s the goodie but only in Clown World.

And there’s more. He found out the next day (from Lloyds bank) that Mum had been able to book a new appointment at a different branch, had blocked the stolen card and removed him from her account just 10 days after he had taken over. “Reluctantly” he rushed over to her local branch and “reluctantly” persuaded the manager to block Mum’s account and stop her accessing her own money and for the first time in her life prevent her from paying her bills. Another branch had previously flagged a warning on the system that as a safeguard in future bank staff would be alert and not take any instruction from David or Janet. Indeed, they never should have. Mum told the manager she had been fooled, by her own son, and was worried he hadn’t given up. She was advised that if they did accompany her again she should indicate to staff and she would be taken aside. This manic interference in Mum’s affairs that he sold to his siblings as a reluctant protective ‘agreement’ was more like a sick joke and was going to get worse before the whole thing was restored to what Mum actually wanted.

With her account frozen her pension was now being returned to sender by the bank. Due to David’s fanatical behaviour, Mum was now told that in order to get any money she would have to physically attend a branch with ID with her two severely damaged hips and be permitted no more than £100 pocket money per week. Mum’s only ID was her bank card which David had run off with!  She doesn’t respond well to being treated like a child and refused to go to the bank to be humiliated. Besides which she wasn’t very well and the Peszel children were stressing her out.

Because David’s contact details still hadn’t been removed from his brief spell as third-party mandate, despite the bank assurances that they had been, Mum was not informed of any of this until she attended, only him. Aged 90 and with severe mobility issues Mum found these journeys very difficult.

This was all after David had been told straight to his face by Mum that no-one had stolen anything and that she objected to his lies and his meddling in her affairs. His hopes dashed he threw out his teddy bear, in fact he literally entered her home threw a pile of her documents on the living room floor and told his mum without shame that “I’m washing my hands of you and him”. Great to hear, but really? It’s your own Mum for goodness sake and she needs her kids more than ever! With his ego tripping on steroids, he was oblivious to the fact he was a non-person to me by now anyway and all respect was gone but what exactly was Mum being punished for? Mum’s faint hope was he would apologise to us all instead but David, dear David, had dug himself in far too deep. He made this announcement as though it were meant to be a punishment rather than the best thing that could happen. Yes indeed, David Peszel dumped his own mum after throwing a load of shit at the fan and throwing a tantrum when it splashed back at him leaving Mum utterly disillusioned and leaving her affairs in a total mess. Mum says it’s evil. While he has indeed kept a physical distance from her in the years since he is psychologically trapped and manically obsessed with me.

He set about a campaign to take over Mum’s life then targeted me when I got in his way. David can’t help but reveal what is really making him do all this as he bemoans that “he spoilt everything” and “he caused all this shit”. Me? I’m not sure how he reaches such a conclusion beyond him reflecting self but I have achieved a lot I am proud of in my life and he appears to allude to my spoiling of the plans the Peszels had for my Mum which is the absolute pinnacle for me. Talking about me endlessly and how he despises me David describes me publicly as “the chosen one”. The chosen one! That angelic description is equally intriguing and highlights yet again his corrosive bugbear. I simply chose to have a normal healthy relationship with my Mum. Mum would have chosen to have all her children in her life making her happy in her later years. The Peszels chose to shit on her.  It’s a choice. You can make excuses for your choices but it’s still your choice. Because of me Mum has been able to stay in her own home and take her chances in the big wide world for four more years than they would have allowed and counting.

The whole saga, bar the obvious downside, has been an adventure that Mum, Ali and I have enjoyed together and has formed some fond memories that the three of us often laugh about, including one moment when Mum faced up to a monotone ‘computer says no’ robot in the bank waving her walking stick at him and calling him a “little Hitler” as she demanded he immediately undo the damage David had done.

What you fight you strengthen, what you resist persists. They brought Anthony and I closer much to Mum’s delight. And my Mum and I haven’t been so close both geographically and spiritually since I was a kid, though of course she has always been there during difficult times. Strengthening our bond is what David has achieved in his fight against this healthy relationship. Had he desired to do the right thing he would have the same and we would all be happy. Mum would still be around her family in Bolton.

“He is washing his hands…? He should not have got involved in the first place it has nothing to do with him” – Mum

“If they would just stay out of it. Stay out of everything. Even what they have created. Stay out of it! I wish he’d mind his own business and take his bird with him” – Mum.

Couldn’t be clearer, his mum wanted none of this and was not going to allow them to succeed and yet they persist.

This sordid affair with the bank became the focus of a lengthy investigation by the Financial Ombudsman Service.

“Mrs D Mann’s complaint about Lloyds Bank PLC

We have all the information we need to look into Mrs Mann’s complaint. Based on what I’ve seen, I don’t think Lloyds Bank PLC (“the bank”) have acted fairly. I’ve explained why below – along with how I think the complaint should be resolved. Mrs Mann has told us that her son, David Peszel, had been pressuring her to add him to her account and took her to the Halliwell Road, Bolton branch. He was added to her account as a third party and she believed he told the bank that she wasn’t able to look after her accounts herself. After the third party mandate was set up he arranged for her online banking credentials to be reset, which he took when they were sent to her house and also took her debit card from her. Mrs Mann was worried that Mr Peszel wasn’t acting in her best interests and decided she didn’t want him having access to her account anymore. As Mr Mann had travelled several hundred miles to take his mother to the bank, they managed to get an appointment at Leigh branch on 13 August 2019 – not particularly convenient or easy for Mrs Mann to walk to as not directly accessible by car – but it was the only one they could get. During the lengthy appointment Mrs Mann explained she wanted Mr Peszel’s third party mandate removed and that she needed a new card, as he had taken hers. I feel the bank should have considered whether it was appropriate to warn a third party mandate holder that the account holder was intending to cancel their access. In my view telling Mr Peszel that his mother was going to cancel the third party mandate overstepped that level of authority. There had been no suggestion that Mrs Mann didn’t have the capacity to make decisions about her account, so she was perfectly entitled to change her mind about allowing Mr Peszel to have third party access to her account. The notes recorded by the bank when the block was put on Mrs Mann’s account clearly states that all credits should be allowed to the account. However, not a single credit was applied after the block was in place and all her pensions were returned to the remitters. She was sent letters about this, which caused her much anxiety, and was subsequently inconvenienced by having to find out who to contact to re-arrange the payments to her. It’s not clear why the bank was questioning Mrs Mann’s mental capacity and I’ve not been provided with any evidence to say there is a requirement for a mental health assessment.  Overall, my feelings are that the actions seem to have focused more on protecting the bank’s position, rather than taking steps to ensure Mrs Mann understood what was happening and what needed to be done. As a result, an elderly lady with poor mobility was in the position of having to walk to the branch to get limited cash each week and then go on to do her shopping. She hasn’t been able to buy anything through her Lloyds account without using cash since August 2019. All of this, along with a lack of a comprehensive answer to her complaint or explanation of the bank’s actions, has caused Mrs Mann significant distress and inconvenience. As a result, I’m upholding her complaint.”

In September 2021 Lloyds accepted all of the ombudsman’s findings and recommendations and wrote to Mum to apologise for failing so badly in their responsibility of care and privacy and for the distress caused. “We accept that the level of service you received fell below our normal level that we aim to provide in pursuit of being the Best Bank for Customers. As agreed, I’ve arranged for £ …….  to be paid directly into your account ending …  ” All outstanding issues created by David were now resolved except for his ongoing duplicitous retention and distribution of his mum’s private bank statements that he has no right to and which she has now demanded be returned. Reading of his never ending yearning for her death even four years on, which he sees as ‘the right time’ to again show his contempt and use her to create further strife, was the final straw. She wrote to her son:

At the time of writing he has continued to ignore the wishes of his mum and has refused to respond as requested.

When hanging out with David and Janet before they turned on us Ali and I were treated ad nausea to their vile racist views, likewise Robert who is very proud of the violence he inflicted on Irish girls in back alleys while playing soldiers in Northern Ireland. I still have a vivid memory of him from my childhood, older than me and bigger, laughing at me while ripping an arm and a leg off my teddy bear as I balled. My bear became known as One Arm Ted. It’s no wonder he greedily gobbled up David’s story and ran with his bully campaign even though it is aimed at his own family. Such is the confused state they find themselves in, the Peszel’s ancestry is a mixture of East European, African and British yet they harbour a lot of hatred for vast others of their own species who are not exactly like them. The one time Robert met Ali he boasted of this abuse of women and didn’t sell himself very well at all. Notably a hint of humanity did creep in during this visit at Mum’s when he expressed his disbelief at the little effort David ever made to pop in and check on our mum. If he said as much to David then that of course fell on deaf ears. He is next known to us for waging a war on us all, on behalf of David. I don’t get it!

While they were plotting during Mum’s hospital stay in early 2019 and nudging the doctors and Social Services to have her shoved into care on discharge I wasn’t well and was brewing up sepsis. I nevertheless went to Bolton and took Mum home but was soon in hospital myself and seriously ill. Curiously my episode had many similarities to Mum’s, minus the delirium, and it also took me several months to recover. Jim, bless him, literally slept by Mum’s side in hospital for most of the week. Mum wasn’t able to eat during this time and would describe to me a strange sensation in her throat making eating difficult. Indeed, a sensation of feeling full can be a side effect of such conditions and has occurred again more recently. The Peszels gleefully posted comments about how she was being bloody minded by “refusing” food.  In the evenings I prepared soups and whatavyou to find something palatable. It turned out to be soft, freshly cooked oily butter beans that did the job. Jim was over the moon when she eventually took in some of these and repeated often how I saved her with butter beans! Not so enthusiastic was David’s response. On hearing from a family visitor that Mum had later eaten a hospital meal David’s dominant emotion was not one of relief that his poor mum was finally eating but rather he expressed his feelings in his own SPeszel way by posting a vomiting emoji. It was a vegetarian meal his mum had eaten of which David of course cannot help but express his disapproval.

I was purposefully present at the hospital discharge meeting with Social Services, which David and his wife were eager to attend. It didn’t go at all well for them however, and they were visibly riled at my intervention and the outcome for Mum to be discharge to her own home rather than a care home as per their explicit proposal. Soon after this meeting I drove her home. It was from that point onwards their attitude palpably changed towards me as they realised they had this wasp in the hive and their hate campaign evolved. 

Janet later expressed their attitude in a call to me when Mum was in need of help and we were 300 miles away: “She’s not my mum”. And your husband? Gone fishing? Happy to look after her pension though, eh! And of Jim (aged 80 and registered blind) when they saw he was struggling in his flat close by:  “He’s not our problem” was the response. It was regularly “Poor Jim” for having to put up with their unwanted mum when they were having a poke at her on the Peszel hate forum. Janet later said something chilling to Jim after he had moved in with Mum that he said was delivered like a veiled threat because he was siding with Mum and was not dancing to their tune. Jim relayed that Janet had told him that she had killed her previous husband as he was “in the way”. She was having an affair with David at the time. I don’t know if she did the deadly deed or not but there were witnesses to her announcement and even using such a tactic to try and scare someone elderly and infirm to comply is pretty sick. All the while they point their fingers at Ali and I claiming we are bullies! Reflecting self.

At home and prey to the predators Mum had to defend her borders when she was exposed to carers from a care company with the worst reputation in the area. Such was her determination to retain control that she eventually got to the stage of locking these people out! That’s my Mum. David didn’t approve of this either so arranged for the door locks to be changed, providing himself with a set of keys and denying Mum a key to her own home. David and his wife would let themselves in while she was out which was a cause of further significant anxiety for Mum. Meanwhile David hassled Jim to pay up for the new locks which he was very unhappy about. He pointed out they were never consulted about this action and he wanted nothing to do with anything that upset his beloved. Mum talked a lot about moving away from Bolton because of all this harassment but loved Bolton and we eventually agreed she shouldn’t be forced to leave her home. Jim then suggested we move in with them, which was not going to happen!

“I can’t stay in this situation with knowing what they are heading to do to me. What I don’t want is David turning up.  How do I stop these people from interfering?  He’s got keys if I’m out and there’s no protection against that. I just don’t know what to do to stop them coming in. They’re not welcome.” Mum

By imposing electronic equipment that Mum did not want David thoughtlessly disconnected her internet thus leaving her for weeks with no access to her lifelines of Spotify, YouTube and Facebook. Having a stranger’s voice beam out at her from a box in her home and an electronic dosette box sounding an alarm to remind her to take tablets did no good either. The latter was found to be faulty, locking the tablets in while sounding an alarm telling her to take them out! This device had to be replaced twice before being abandoned as the replacement didn’t work properly either. Mum took to hiding the thing under her mattress to silence the alarm which was in my view a smart solution and it worked. This set up also caused problems leading to regular issues with her phone line which cut off her contact with the outside world and her ability to get help if it was needed. While David was telling his siblings of my interference in his interfering and sharing gossip and photographs he had taken in Mum’s home, Social Services agreed with us that this system was a mess. Working together we resolved all these issues and Mum was thankful and relieved. We later loaded all her favourite music tracks onto her iPad ensuring she’d always have this escape if the internet went down again.  

In the midst of all this and genuinely concerned about what they might do next Mum made the dramatic decision to speak to the police and make an official statement. I kid you not! Bear in mind the Peszel siblings were claiming the mum they’ve shown only contempt for and don’t really know had lost her marbles and needed to be detained against her will and have her life micro managed by David & his wife. The investigating officers had no such concerns about what Mum wanted and didn’t want and recorded her statement at length.

She had no desire to involve the police and couldn’t believe they had put her in that position but she felt she had no choice. “Needs must. Why does David hate me so much?  He has to be stopped.” I reminded her that all this is about him and no one else. Following her interview the police advised her to set up Power of Attorney to protect her and her wishes, if and when needed, and expressed their utter disbelief that someone was able to take over her bank account with such ease. Admirably Mum declined to make an official complaint about David Peszel for thieving her bank card, withholding and sharing her bank statements and for coercing her. 

While David was telling Social Services about the Peszel requirements regarding Mum, Mum had plenty to say to them too. When asked about his sudden disappearance from her life after an intense few months of making himself busy in her affairs and badgering Social Services endlessly about how she was in need of help from outsiders and taking into care she stated:

“I really don’t understand it. We are not a fighting family. I didn’t like them interfering behind my back and dictating but he is my son and that’s the sad thing but it’s his choice. We didn’t fall out with him. He went… into my wardrobe he rifled through my handbag and my cash point card was one of the things that had gone”.

These four children will be remembered for their efforts at this time in their mum’s life and they leave an unenviable legacy. I couldn’t care less about being called names, in fact, the desperation amuses me, but I would not be happy carrying the heavy burden of having discarded and dumped on my own mum when she needed me the most. I would struggle to deal with that. I have felt that pain of losing someone dear to me unexpectedly without getting the chance to tell them I loved them. That’s one of those things out of our control that we have to come to terms with, but this is deliberate and meant to cause hurt.

I would urge everyone to look into Lasting Power of Attorney before it’s needed just in case. One of the things Mum asked of me before we found the need for legal protection was to ensure her bills were always paid if ever she was unable to manage, something I failed to do thanks to David, albeit briefly. Another was to keep her out of care unless and until absolutely necessary. He failed on that one. It’s now September 2023, she is nearly 94 and it still isn’t necessary but things could have turned out very differently if they had their way.

It’s ironic how much David expresses his dislike of the Muslim community for being different to him; a community that stands out for the dedication and loyalty it has for its elders. And, as it happens it was the Muslim carers that made Mum feel the most comfortable when she was in Bolton and went beyond the call of duty to help her while David and his followers did their thing.

Mum to Jim: “Can you believe all this bloody crap? My god they are supposed to care for mum and all they are doing is antagonising and they know mum has got a fuse.” Keith: “So has son.” Everyone laughs. David next threw into his cauldron some story about me adding Jim to my money grab! And why not! The story wouldn’t be so solid without a second victim. Shows a pattern of behaviour. An MO. Back in reality, this was a few days before David shut down her bank account when Jim had insisted on contributing to hire a highly respected private consultant to assess Mum’s mental capacity and for a solicitor. He was present at each appointment and thrilled to be able to help protect his nearest and dearest from the dark side. The consultant liaised with Mum’s GP to complete the assessment, the result of which made a mockery of the Peszel’s claims.

As per his desire, rather than take the cash from his account and give it to Mum, Jim opted to withdraw from his account and deposit the money into Mum’s account. Aware David was snooping we didn’t want him knowing Mum’s plan so arranged to pay the bills by cash so Mum took it straight back out and did so. David promptly informed his siblings of his snooping conclusion telling them this was evidence of me now fleecing Jim. The foot soldiers of course gobbled up the latest Peszel newsfeed and off they went stretching the lie to suit their toxic self-serving narrative. Robert told one of his divisive tales to Anthony on their forum as he sought to stir some shit, “He then started ‘borrowing’ Jims money but as you know he knows how to control her so she won’t say a word whilst he tries to keep profiting from her bank account. None of us will ever have any time for the Weasel again but as was stated a few times we were not blaming you for his behaviour. It was him who bad mouthed you on a few occasions to take the bad look off himself how else would we have known about your (private life) which again we didnt care about.”

Robert lives in Northern Ireland and knew not the first thing about Jim. He has not shown the slightest interest in his mum in four years and has not spoken a word to me either. His world view is formed by David whose motives are clear and whose credibility is in the sewer. Yet Robert can’t get enough of it and is somehow satisfied that this is all a fitting contribution to his aging mum’s needs. Mum expresses utter disbelief each time she reads the things they write.

There were also some enticing clues about their unspoken issues in ramblings about how they felt they were treated as children 50 odd years prior with David inexplicably mixing in his hatred of me and disinterest in his mum with some age old story about David. This was seamlessly following Anthony once again trying to get them to step up and remind them that “she’s…  our mum and that’s all that matters.”

David replies: “The time I spent in care when I was old enough to earn a wage packet (15) I also handed my wage packet over, unopened and had my dues respectfully taken and was handed the balance back. Utter respect for Mr & Mrs Rogers for giving up there time for me”.

Uh? No acknowledgement that this is indeed meant to be about his mum, not a murmur about her health, her wellbeing or her wishes. Instead, he reinforced the envy at the heart of all this. “This one is for you Anthony. You only got £60 for your birthday this year as you said mum was a bit skint. You normally got £100. Haven’t had that off mum in 63 years but then again I don’t care do I? Bitter and twisted?” It all seems to be about David and money. He told himself he isn’t but only he brought it up and fed into the idea that he is indeed bitter and twisted. A couple of years prior he borrowed £500 off Mum while going through his divorce. He kept it. Did not pay or offer it back. I judge not but hypocrisy and double standards do spring to mind again.  

Stephen also let us in on that something tormenting the group as he mingled his odd suggestion about how others must live their lives with complaints about a very long time long ago when he was staying with us (and our dad not his) and how terrible it was for him. “Time for those who ‘borrowed’ to pay back don’t you think. So, own up all those who have borrowed or taken gifts of money from her! I never had, even though those awful days I stayed with her in Rochdale for a while and Jim wanted my pay packets unopened, but I digress.”

I had some pretty awful days with my Dad too, for a decade and more in fact and it had nothing to do with money. Mum also had a nightmare with him that drove her to have a breakdown from which she emerged strong and confident. I learnt from my experience and got on with my life as did she. Before the emergence of weird I forwarded to Stephen, at my cost, a childhood memento Mum still had and thought he might like. This was naturally thoughtful of Mum and Stephen was very grateful for this gift, but are they not meant to be returning or declining gifts? There surely needs to be a Peszel Committee inquiry to discuss these transgressions from their peculiar moral standards.  

Stephen went on about the “old lady” he was hearing rumours about and adding to the ever shifting ever confusing narrative his opinions about the other people in the story he has no contact with and knows nothing about: “I don’t think the Peszels have used her money or taken advantage of her generosity or age related mental state… you don’t use an old lady’s money just because you can.”

He doesn’t think any of them have?  Is that the smoking gun? Does recognising his mum’s generosity not spoil their wibbly wobbly theft narrative? And what of the pack leader who took full advantage of the age-related mental state that he insisted was such that Mum couldn’t fend for herself and needed to submit her bank account to him through coercion? Any thoughts? Any objections?  Weighing up the evidence according to David, Stephen reached a firm decision:

“It is elder abuse. THIS is terrorism Mum and Jim must be too afraid to do anything.”

Blimey! What ever happened to critical thinking? Or just thinking! He drew this incredible conclusion from 4,000 miles away, based on hearsay, about his mother who he has not seen or spoken to in decades. I gaze on in wonder at their wild imagination and the ease with which they formulate their narrative with one ridiculous idea piled on another. All one had to do was ask Mum how their disinterest, their abuse, their blackmail, their bullying and their disrespecting of everything sacred has made her feel throughout this awful Peszel project.  Of course the first question everyone asks is, if any of this was about them being genuinely desperate to protect their mum then they would be, like we are, standing shoulder to shoulder doing just that. As actions speak louder than words, we can clearly see the real motive. The one question I can’t answer is what on earth do these people say when asked how their lovely mum is getting on? ‘Dunno, we’ve disowned her?’ ‘Don’t care?’ It’s either something like that or another lie but either way it amounts to the same cruel reality. The Peszels have sought to portray me as some kind of monster with a view to deflecting from their appalling behaviour even claiming I terrorise and abuse my Mum…

Poor old thing

You couldn’t make this stuff up. This is not how Mum should spend the latter part of her life with spiteful children waging a vendetta and disrespecting all of her wishes.

David had told Anthony in a text in December 2019 when asked if he would be seeing Mum over Xmas: “I wont be going over any time as long as Keith is around. I want absolutely nothing to do with him. He has lost any respect from myself and Janet. We never did anything wrong but mum seriously side’s with him so sadly I’m staying well away. Glad that you are coming up and I will talk to you anytime, but not Keith. He has ruined all relationships.“ Eek! It’s too weird. No, that would be you David. He is typically reflecting self as he has purposefully wrecked countless relationships for himself, his immediate family, nieces, nephews and of course his very own mum who has suffered the greatest losses. The whole thing is a horrible mess and I have played no role in any of it!

Here he is threatening that he will no longer have a relationship with his own mum as long as she has contact with me. That’s two of the many relationships he has deliberately trashed. It’s like playground politics – ‘I’m not playing with you if you play with him’.

Imagine for a moment how thrilled Mum was to hear of this once in a lifetime opportunity to have David Peszel back in her life, getting his hands dirty in her affairs and trying as hard as he can to split her family and all she had to do was disown me. “WHAT?!! Who the bloody hell does he think he is! He can go and take a bloody running jump.” He didn’t bother to tell his mum this directly but telling her he was washing his hands of her is hard to beat and effectively ended the relationship anyway. Knowing full well what kind of a response he would get, he instead used Anthony to pass it on.

How little he knows Mum that he thinks she would trade any of her children for any reason let alone to satisfy selfish demands of someone who only caused disruption in her life as she aged following years of absence and intended much worse. He made up some story about me, deluding himself that he could fool his mum enough to get her to get me out of the way, he spread lies to divide her family, he stole her bank card, he stole her mail and bank statements, he encouraged Social Services to sedate her and to impose maddening controls, he changed her locks and denied her a key to her own home, he froze her bank account and cancelled her appointments and direct debit payments and suspended her pension payments, he recruited others to harass his mum and sought to dump her into a care home and finally, he ‘washed his hands’ of her. None of which did anyone any good, yet he persists and he doesn’t spare a thought for how all this makes her feel.  Or maybe he does and that is the point?

Mum is a shining light and has learnt not to let the darkness in. She has been around the block and survived the efforts of my father to break her, the bombs of the Luftwaffe and the thugs of the National Front. It’s more personal when its blood but like she says “It’s their choice, if this makes them happy then there’s nothing I can do about it. I love them they are my children, but can’t make them love me. As long as I have those of you who do care I am happy.”

No one in their right mind would go back for more of this. Fortunately, as Mum’s health improved, she recovered from the delirium as expected and she was no longer so vulnerable. David meanwhile has warned that he has other things planned for me and assured his siblings that “I haven’t finished with him yet.” Here I am minding my own business and I still have the stalker making threats! And why is that again? I laugh more in a single day with our mum than these lost souls have done collectively for as long as you like and David’s contribution is to threaten me. Ali does too and she isn’t even related! It doesn’t really need stating by now but even our dog Marley spends more time with their mum and feeds her soul, even when 300 miles away. Even local retailers and neighbours! Mum said of David’s threat:

“That makes my blood boil”

I wonder what he means by such a chilling remark. More shit stirring seems most likely. He cannot seem to grasp that none of this has any effect on me. I don’t care now my Mum is safe. I’m not entirely sure what he thinks he has achieved thus far but if there is some more of it to come then I’ll keep a look out just in case I miss it. David acts irrationally as expressed by his curious determination to draw constant attention to the actions of the Peszels, of which I would be so thoroughly ashamed I’d be keeping my head down and keeping my mouth shut. There’s no telling what he might do next, but one thing is for sure he has no desire to pull back now and can never undo what he has done even if he wanted to. Perhaps the mental health team he sent after Mum could have a word.

Not surprisingly in the depths of the Covid madness while decent, caring folk sought to rally around and support friends, family and strangers – the plotting Peszels never even bothered to check in to just see how their mum and Jim were coping. No Red Cross parcel on the doorstep or in the post from any of them. Nothing! Mum is quite clear that she doesn’t need their toxicity anymore anyway, she doesn’t want the pretence, the plotting and the spying and since they have washed their hands any contact with them comes with an agenda. Fortunately, other kind-hearted relatives did step up.

I imagine the outcome of all this had Mum been trapped in a care home during those two years when residents were denied essential human contact and 40,000+ residents died alone, prevented from seeing their loved ones in the most repugnant act of betrayal. Mum, of course, did get to stay home and continued to thrive. Here Stephanie Peszel expresses her kind of warmth and consideration on a thread posted on her Nan’s Facebook wall while I was in hospital struggling to breathe with litres of fluid on my lungs and blood clots. Mum was worried about me and hoping for moral support so Stephanie did what she does best.

This all mostly happened in 2019/2020, since then there has been rumbling toxicity from them with periodic online outbursts of unnecessary nasty and nothing nice for their mum. In September 2022 Jim fell ill and was hospitalised and Anthony posted on his Facebook wall an ask for local family to pop in on Mum while she was home alone. David lives close by but he wasn’t going anywhere near, though he did have something to say on this public post. He asked cynically “where is the chosen one when things like this happen”. In this crass jibe I was accused by the Peszels of neglecting the mum they have callously abused and abandoned like a dog that can’t be trained. The flip side was the later commentary via Stephanie that I was spending so much time talking with my Mum that they weren’t able to get her alone. So, what is their issue? It’s them!

Just a few weeks later still Stephen Peszel stepped forward with a similarly bizarre but delayed commentary on a random Halloween post again on Anthony’s public wall, as he engaged the plot to do a Peszel public shaming of those of us who shame them. “So, your mum is all alone at home and has been for the past four weeks that her partner Jim has been in hospital. Have you or your brother Keith Mann been to see her? Have you checked that she is ok” This is all just too weird.  The notion of the Peszels and all they represent here public shaming anyone; it’s like the twilight zone! You have to laugh at the irony. Is she not your mum too then Stephen? We might not carry that very special Peszel surname but we will always be blood. He would know the answers to his questions of course if he ever bothered to check in with his mum. Ever. I’m embarrassed for them. Anthony and I of course knew how things were because we actually care. It was Anthony’s post four weeks earlier that alerted the four missing children to their Mum’s sad news as none of them had the slightest clue or care in the world. And when they later found out still none of them used it to offer any comfort to their mum just to be divisive and nasty some more.

Stephanie actually boasted that she lived just 5 minutes away and regularly walked past Mum’s home in Bolton! If only someone had told her Granny was all alone she mused how she would have rushed round to save her. It’s incomprehensible that those Peszels on Mum’s doorstep are admitting that they haven’t a clue about their mum while whining in public that those of us living hundreds of miles away should keep them updated, because they cannot be arsed even so much as calling her and they can’t see the absurdity in any of it! For all they have done to her and their lack of interest in supporting her she continues to try and interact with them in Facebook posts. They mostly ignore her or spew more venom. It’s like they have lost their souls and can no longer feel anything. Yet here she is in her 90’s making her way around the internet in the vain hope that the children who rallied for a care home for the mother they insisted could no longer survive in her own home four years earlier might just say something nice.

Anthony corrected their fantastic assumptions and ignorant Peszel judgements by sharing photos of Mum’s nearest and dearest right by her side. Far from thrilled to hear that she was doing just fine, the Peszels became enraged to see Anthony praising me for being Mum’s rock. Our Mum. They rapidly vomited out a public Peszel name calling attack and piled on Anthony with more of their signature bullying. See below.

Call me cynical but in November 2022, three days after David mentioned yet again that he is still waiting for the right time to shit on his own mum by telling his idiotic story in the hope this might help him ease the terrible burden he has landed himself and his followers with, he and sister Suzanne and her friend met up to make a very rare and uninvited visit. This was David’s first since he washed his hands of her in 2019. He characteristically hovered like he didn’t want to be there but was irritably curious. They had their little nosey, pretended to be interested for about an hour and left with not a word of apology for, or acknowledgement of, their appalling behaviour. Mum called me immediately and she was anxious. “You won’t believe who just came round!” She went on to say “It was nice to see them because they are my children after all and I love them and that won’t ever change, but it didn’t feel right and I wish they wouldn’t come here now because I’m not sure what they really want.” Either as they arrive, so that I could listen in, or immediately after these rare visits Mum liked to call me and there was never any joy in her voice. Projecting self they subject their own mum to feeling like this while accusing me of abusing and neglecting her by having the perfect relationship. I’m fascinated as to how they rationalise any of this in their heads. It sickens me that anyone would make my Mum feel this way. Or any mum. I surmise they were pretty gutted to find that she is doing just fine now they are out of the way and that she won’t be providing them with their exciting opportunity any time soon.

Until now the four of us have all maintained a dignified silence in the face of this relentless provocation from these people and apart from Anthony we have said nothing to any of them in all this time. This lengthy tome is a dignified correction that Mum wants publicised more than any of us so the truth be finally told and David’s dark ‘the time is nigh’ death dream be put to rest while she is alive. In late 2022 for the record Anthony did call Stephanie a bitch. He wasn’t on a Peszel-like attack or aiming directly at her but was responding to David wanting to know why he had had enough of her abuse towards him and had blocked her. And I told David to “fuck off and mind your own business” in 2019 after he had unleashed his toxic load and stirred up a right old mess. Anthony went way beyond the call of duty to try and meet the minds of those he was always proud to call his family, but he has the wrong name and the right intentions towards his family, so he had no chance.

As it happens not only was I caring for my dear Ali, who is most often bedridden and was fresh out of the largest orthopaedic pelvic surgery at the time of the Peszel attack, but I had just spent 6 days with Mum the week prior and had my Mum with us on Facetime on her iPad for hours that very day, as was the norm after Jim was hospitalised. Meanwhile the SPeszels play their role in the nasty campaign against the people who do have a normal relationship with our mum. I might see about getting ‘SPeszel’ added to the dictionary as a term for someone who shits on their own mum. (‘Poor Mabel, they did a SPeszel on her’).

Adding to his excuses David wrote to Anthony in late 2022 that he was unwilling to go see his mum because he was looking after a dog. Mum loves dogs and dogs love Mum. Suzanne had a ton of excuses too, mostly shopping and babysitting her mum’s great granddaughter. It would be normal to take along these excuses to visit grandma but this is far from normal. Or maybe it is normal? I hope not. During her time of need my sister did visit our mum once at home in early 2019 when she was bedridden. She bought new bedding which was a thoughtful thing to do for her mum. All due respect for that but that was the final act and everything else is sadistic and inhumane. As to what she will tell her grandchildren about why they never got to spend any quality time with Great Grandma Doreen one can only wonder. I’m sure she’ll come up with something and it’ll probably be all my fault!

David further took to exploiting Jim’s ill health to fit his narrative. Jim was in hospital late 2022 because his body was breaking down and he was at the end of his life. That’s why he was taken into hospital. I spoke on the phone to the paramedics late on the night he was taken in and told them what Jim couldn’t. They saw how unwell he was. I spoke with Jim and Jim’s doctors and his social worker. I knew what was going on. David is clueless and couldn’t care less so makes stuff up. David was spinning his yarn, in the pattern to which we have come accustomed, to report that the reason for Jim being in hospital for so long must be because they didn’t want to allow him home due to a home environment that was unsuitable for him according to the Peszel Book of Fantasies. David of course had to make this up as he’d had no contact with his mum for years.

Jim died in hospital in December two and a half months later and Mum was crushed. Of course none of them bothered to call their mum during this time and never once offered to take her to visit poor Jim in hospital, which was her overriding daily request. Dear uncle Michael, at 85, was left to try and do this as often as he could for his sister using a hospital wheelchair and taxis. This was very challenging for him.

David did pop by briefly again two weeks after Jim died for the second time in four years again just a few days after yet another online pledge to dump on mummy once she is out of the way and while she was in mourning. Are they under pressure to stop the idle threats and expose me as the monster David has created so stopped by to check if the time was nigh? That’s how it looks. Another brief visit and still no apologies for the past four years and still fully intent on disrespecting all of his mum’s wishes when she’s gone.  

Ali and I headed up, arriving at 3am the morning after Jim died and stayed for six days. Anthony went up soon after we left and spent Xmas with his mum and Michael is ever present, considerate and supportive. He was 85 so hardly in the prime of life yet he did all he could to step up his support as required due to the lack of effort by the absent Peszels. The leader of the pack meanwhile put his heart and soul into messaging Anthony to see if he could update his database on me. My big bruva! During our hangout Ali was given two necklaces by Mum, one with a love heart, we were given a DVD of one of her favourite love films to watch, the carer got a cup of tea and chocolate éclair and Uncle Michael was given a carrier bag full of packets of crisps.  With the family round his for Xmas and the crisps set to be gobbled up I can’t help but wonder what the Peszel Committee’s return rules are for perishable goods.

While Mum was mourning the loss of Jim, the thoughtful Peszels did their thing by sending around Stephanie to have a peep. Intelligence gathered they promptly gathered for the scheduled post-visit bitching party.

Stephanie had just arrived this evening as I called my Mum for one of our regular chats. Mum wanted to talk to me and clearly signalled to me that she wanted to stay on the phone as she feels uneasy around David’s pouting princess who she rarely saw or heard from apart from when stirring trouble. I am a comfort to my Mum and understand her intimately and I was chuckled by how she dealt with this.  Mum did as she desired and we talked and we laughed. She was interrupted by the visitor after half an hour of sitting there like a spare part and told to ask me to call back later.  Mum ignored her and her conversation with her loyal son continued uninterrupted. This was Mum’s polite way of saying fuck off. Stephanie did eventually get the hint but pledged, thick skinned and oblivious to the signals, that she would return another day. We carried on as mum and son and made merry of the event. Stephanie was reporting back to headquarters within minutes of leaving and sharing the gossip on how her Nan lives passing the inevitable toxic Peszel judgement and making more threats. See the screenshots below for a first-hand account of their role in Mum’s life, as she mourns, and the contagious disease eating away at these people. The evil Keith Mann, they decreed, had purposefully sabotaged sweet Stephanie’s uninvited, unwelcome visit by ringing his mum soon after she arrived, forcing her to talk to me and making her sit in the dark. How would I know she was about to arrive. Do they think I have special powers? Stephanie does refer to me as Jesus and he walks on water, so maybe they do.

The updated complaint about me was that my presence in my Mum’s life is now too much! David went on to mock the “shrine” that his daughter had reported he should express his opinion about above Mum’s mantelpiece displaying photographs of Mum’s parents and Mum, Ali, Marley and me from our previous visit. These photos Anthony had shared in his recent Facebook rebuttal to their demanding to know my whereabouts while they were playing keyboard warriors in their vendetta. Mum said in response “If he doesn’t approve of my pictures then get me some more and blow them up big as you can.” We did as requested and laughed some more.

David’s charming daughter goes on to refer to me as Jesus in the Peszel discussion over my role in my Mum’s life as she perversely and venomously swears through her dark thoughts and hints at her desire to murder one or more of us following her spy-on-the-enemy visit. She makes trash talk flow with ease!  Ali and I met this class act just once years earlier at Mum’s and that was most memorable for how thoroughly self-absorbed and uninterested in anyone else she was. She has since developed an irrational yet vicious anti-social interest in those of us whose social skills she cannot comprehend.  

In response to Stephanie’s post, David adds a note of comfort for his impatient bro Robert itching to do the dirty on their mum via her bank statements by encouraging him to “sit tight, the day will come.” Think about that for a moment. The day will come? What day? He can barely hold back what he really wants to say but knows he has to. I think if Mum lives too much longer he will just blurt it out in frustration: ‘when the old bag snuffs it we can stir up some shit and try and bring Keith down to the sewer’! Robert broadcasts his fear that the wider family reading their curious ‘big day’ pledge and verbal attacks on Anthony and I won’t be of the Peszel hive mind and might “just think its a petty vendetta”. Because it doesn’t look anything like that does it now! Not content to wait until Granny is out of the game Stephanie snarled that enough is enough, today was a happy phone call too many between mother and son and the time had come to bring forth the wrath of the Peszels. With firm authority she assures her elders that she will be defiantly passing around her grandmother’s stolen bank documents imminently. It was all those years ago when daddy was trying to take over Mum’s bank account that he promised his people that “whatever it takes I will deal with it”. He didn’t deal with anything because there was nothing for him to deal with and his mum stopped his attempts to take control of everything. They sound like comic book superheroes but are more like the Three Stooges. This irrational self-righteous outburst of rage was stirred up because my Mum wanted to talk to me rather than the toxic two-faced stranger who invited herself in to feed her hungry family on gossip. She goes on: “Fuckin scumbag. I detest the pair of them.” I’m the scumbag but I’m not sure if the second in this SPeszel hate thread is aimed at Ali/Mum/Anthony/the dog but she’s probably thinking all of them. It’s worth highlighting that these petty rants revolving around Mum were taking place within a week or so of Mum grieving over the tragic loss of her best friend and partner.

There’s a hole in the soul where the heart should be.

Are these psychotic episodes a genetic trait or is it learnt?

Stephanie works in the health care sector and has been, she claims, a social worker and a carer. A carer! I know there are staffing and recruitment issues but is anyone allowed to join? This person swearing and cursing and hating her way through the day mocks my cancer experience. Who does that? Oh yeah, daddy David and Uncle – snake oil – Robert got their jollies mocking mum’s ill-health and her strength of character. They need to be careful because as Mum says of the actions of her wayward children “evil is as evil does” and these things can come back to bite you on the arse, a bit like karma, a bit like the Peszel story. And when you are surrounded by people who can do these sort of things with not a care in the world for the harm they do there may not be much in the way of empathy from the cold hearts around you when life takes a downturn.

Stephanie and Suzanne Peszel

And what of this ‘carer’ boasting she has obtained a pensioner’s private bank account information and is threatening to spread it around. Who does that? Ditto. If she can threaten to do this to her own grandmother then what chance do others have around her?  This behaviour does not advertise that the right people are being employed to care for the vulnerable. The whole story I have of this person is of someone cold, callous, rude and angry and I get a very unpleasant feeling when I read her thoughts. And she is oblivious! They all are. Mum has had more contact with her than I ever have and she has lost all confidence in, and all respect for, Stephanie and that is putting it mildly. “How dare you mention that name around me” is typically now the response to hearing her name. Mum is 93 and frail and if she feels like this then there is something seriously wrong. A society is judged by the way it treats its most vulnerable and a family is too.

These people spend a lot of time responding to how we live our lives and talking about themselves. Here is the unhinged response to Anthony posting an update on our mum, Ali and I spending 6 days together visiting Jim in hospital and doing happy family things:

Stephanie did stop by again in Jan 2023 as she threatened and Mum called me immediately as she arrived, whispered and lay the phone down so I could listen in. I recorded it. I was about to call her as we had arranged in line with a pre-booked appointment with Mum’s letting agent but Stephanie had gone out of her way to be there on the Peszels’ behalf.  The toxic stranger had inexplicably contacted Mum’s landlady the day before and had extracted from her that I had arranged for the agent to attend my Mum’s that afternoon. Stephanie was there half an hour early to infiltrate herself into Mum’s affairs. She referred to Power of Attorney three times during this visit and questioned Mum about who signs her documents. Mum had purposefully fully loaded her glowing commentary about me for Stephanie’s benefit from the start and was not falling for the sugar-coated spy. Stephanie thought she was gaining some control but Mum was playing with Stephanie. Mum told her gleefully and repeatedly that I sort all her affairs but Stephanie ignored her, instructed the agent she be kept informed instead of me and proceeded to take him around the house without being asked or required. Mum whispered while they were upstairs “What is that bitch doing in my bedroom and why is she going on about Power of Attorney?” She asked if they could take over Power of Attorney and I assured her that hell would freeze over first. She was thrilled to be reminded of this. Stephanie Peszel told the agent contrary to what she knows full well to be fact that I wasn’t really able to help her poor Nan “cos he lives down in Brighton”. So Wonder Woman was stepping forward to save her Nan from neglect.

This is why she no longer lives in Bolton. Again, Mum never had any issues with her children until the four Peszels revealed their issues. It was in 2019 that daddy David was last in his mum’s bedroom playing superhero saving her from herself by pocketing her bank card. Without her grandmother’s consent the chip off the old block passed on her mobile number as a point of contact for the letting agent and the landlady who Mum had a long uncomplicated relationship with. Besides which Mum was soon moving, a fact the Peszels were oblivious to due to their determined absence from Mum’s life. This latest intervention comes after years in the wilderness, uninterested and uninvolved as guided by daddy and only ever verbalising behind her Nan’s back her desire to do harm.  With Jim no longer around they had sniffed an opportunity. She reassured her Nan on the way out like she was talking down to a moron (and now super close to the (micro) phone on the chair) “Don’t worry Nan all your problems will be sorted owt now”. Except Mum didn’t have any problems for Stephanie to sort out aside her disrespectful and threatening behaviour. Mum said once she had left “I hope I never see them again”. That’s Stephanie and her daddy she was referring to. She then did some swearing of her own, brought up “evil” quite a bit and demanded to know “what the hell does it have to do with her?” This unwelcome interference increased Mum’s urgency for a move and she expressed how she couldn’t wait for the day they turned up again and found the house empty. Since Jim had passed mum kept looking around and wondered what was keeping her there. She felt lonely. Without Jim she knew she needed some support and it was never going to come from “that lot”. It struck her that lately there had been an uncomfortable uptick in these brief visits by the obnoxious and it made her uneasy.

With Stephanie articulating in her own SPeszel way her troubling thoughts on murder and a disturbing level of hatred comparable to her father, her father has committed the ultimate repugnant act of washing his hands of his own mum, taking the other Peszels down the sewer with him. David further makes his own threats toward me while his brother Robert boasts of his brutal exploits against women. Meanwhile David’s wife unashamedly boasted her murderous exploits regarding her ex husband. All things considered I think David has completely lost all grasp of what it is to be human as he inexplicably vocalises “I,d rather be a Peszel than a Mann”. This while his mum, Doreen Mann, was home alone and deeply worried as Jim had been only briefly discharged back there before being swiftly re-admitted by ambulance. He died within the week. It was our mum who brought the leader of the pack into the world and who was proud to be a Peszel with four delightful Peszel children. She later became a Mann (it’s just a name!) and on reading David’s comment commented “Why would he say that? Personally I would just rather be me“.

So the letters in one’s surname makes one superior? I’m more drawn to the strength of character, a warm personality and love and kindness in action but I suppose if bits of the alphabet are all you have to play with then you have to make the most.

December 17 2022 David Peszel found out when Jim’s funeral was and of course he used this bit of intelligence to hone in on me, like you do when you are manically obsessed. To Anthony he text: “… rang today … (re funeral date) I doubt your brother will be bothered either way as he told us he couldn’t stand Jim. Bit sad really”.

Nope. Still not feeling it; not even toward these pitiful lost souls who have lost their humanity. Can’t stand, despise and hate is the same thing of course. A SPeszel thing.

I spoke to Jim at length while he was in hospital and visited six times. I’d always ask him if he needed anything and he always got emotional and replied “I just want be wi’ Doreen”. He loved her dearly and he was the best thing that happened to her in decades after two less than ideal marriages and he would have done anything for her. They were made for each other. Mum couldn’t handle attending his cremation so I stayed home with her, as she requested, and Anthony attended and read a touching eulogy on Mum’s behalf.

We viewed a flat within 24 hours of Mum asking to move and a month later we got the go ahead and moved her 300 miles to her new home. No stairs, a garden, family support and no trepidation. Anthony, Uncle Michael, Ali and I worked on this with enthusiasm. Stephanie Peszel threatened to Anthony in a text that she intended to go to her Nan’s on the day she was moving to do what she does best: “I’ll be up Wednesday… so will see you then. He just doesnt give a fcuk about any of us so if it was down to him we wouldn’t of known n he would of just taken her! its so fcukin wrong! he’s just a massive cunt n I’ll say it to his face when I see him”. I’m the massive cunt. As those close to Mum know full well she didn’t want that lot knowing of her plans and for good reason. On reading this text message, for the first time in years, she was visibly excited at the prospect of “that thing” coming around! She wanted the opportunity to face her head on and let loose her disgust once and for all with Anthony and I there to protect her and no fear of ever seeing her again. Perhaps not surprisingly, following the pattern of all previous Peszel threats, nothing came of it and we left without getting to film Mum saying her final farewell to her toxic granddaughter. That would have gone viral! She has not a clue, as she arrogantly describes herself as her “Nan’s favourite Granddaughter”, just how she has made her Nan feel about her.

David meanwhile complained that he and his hadn’t been informed directly and immediately about Mum’s relocation plans and, in keeping with the delusion, whined about how all further contact with his mum had now been tragically stripped from him. Seriously! Apparently it is now too far from him to travel and he is sad! This is somewhat reasonable given that the 3 mile journey from his house to his mum’s was too much for him to be arsed with in the years prior. And expecting me to make the 300 mile journey to help his mum because he had abandoned her is also perfectly reasonable, in the mind of David. He hasn’t even bothered to fake love for his mum but he did speak of his heartfelt inexplicable concern that her landlady may not have been given enough notice by Mum of her move, stating that “She doesn’t deserve this.” Another utterly absurd fabricated Peszel ‘problem’! Implying as it does that his mum deserves all they have thrown at her. It’s a story that just keeps giving. Stephanie took it upon herself to call Mum’s landlady the minute she heard a move was afoot in order to give notice on Mum’s behalf! Who does that? Aside it obviously being none of her business, what of the consequences for Mum if Stephanie had managed to impose her weird ways and sign Mum out too early potentially, without confirmation of her new residence, leaving her homeless. They have not a care in the world because the world revolves around them.

David ended his contribution to his mum’s adventure with an angry emoji. With only angry emoji’s, envy and sad faces David stands out a mile. He is deaf and blind to this thing eating away inside but you can’t tell him and only David can help David. Here are some of the inevitable shit stirring rants from David and Stephanie Peszel in response to Mum’s move:

Stephanie shit stirring to Anthony:

This is an inevitable distortion of events as David tries to make it look like they cared about what Mum wanted. They all wanted her in care from the beginning as we have seen documented in their chats above, from our meeting with the hospital discharge team and from the reaction that came soon after Mum was discharged home and this whole thing escalated. What they also did was harass social services endlessly with horror stories of how terrible it was for Mum to be at home and caused the social worker to momentarily agree with David’s loaded interpretation. Alice, Anthony and I again dismissed the proposal and the Peszel pair had no choice but to go back to social services to say it wasn’t going to happen, because we wouldn’t allow it. On speaking to the social worker she said to me there was nothing they could do to force Mum into care if that wasn’t her wish and believe you me there was no-one more resistant than Mum.

Stephanie:

Utterly deluded. The Peszel flip flop now stated that Mum was coping perfectly well in her home in Bolton and did not need support after claiming for years the exact opposite! Once Jim had gone there was a real need for the move and yet this lot were of course oblivious or didn’t care either way as long as they got what they wanted. David projects that even the mere suggestion he was seeking to dump our mum in a care home would be “despicable”. That is a very revealing insight. So, what of the very real very determined efforts, as documented earlier, that he led to send her into care? That must be worse than despicable. How about evil? Perhaps now the time has come for them to reflect collectively on the terrible way they have treated their one and only mum. Perhaps first ask why and then ask what it achieved. They didn’t break their mum or the bonds she can always rely upon but they have left a deep scar that cannot now be healed. Michael does still visit his sister and speaks to her often because he values their relationship and he loves his sister.

I don’t want to hear of these people ever again and they have nothing to offer their mum and only leave her anxious and confused. If there was any humanity, feelings or remorse and a desire to say sorry to their mum, they have left it too late for it to make a difference to her but of course the gesture would be something. Really all that is left is for them to forgive themselves and move on with their lives, to find peace in something less self-destructive and more productive than anger, envy and hatred.

Mum has settled well into her new home. We no longer speak on the phone every day because we now hang out together every day. The angry, heartless ones’ miserable efforts to sabotage our relationship have made matters worse! Her anxiety about the shit stirrers coming into her home and generating those special Peszel vibes has lifted. She just finds only humour in the experience. It wasn’t so much the physical presence but the anticipation that they might turn up. She is very comfortable now and is being cared for appropriately. We go out to places and eat together and do normal family things. She’s now eating really well and we’ve got rid of the carers she never wanted, to be replaced by me. What was needed and deserved was family support, the children and grandchildren, doing the right thing with love, patience and kindness. Just some phone calls or the occasional bunch of flowers if anything else is too much like hard work. I never imagined I would be talking to my Mum about her underwear needs and all that and I’m sure she’d be happier doing so with her daughter but that ship sailed a long time ago.

I’m thrilled I don’t now have a 12 hour round trip to take Mum to appointments or hang out. It now takes 2 minutes. The last trip was a week before the move for cataract surgery at Bolton hospital. Spending time with my Mum enables me to see what she needs as she seldom asks for anything. I’d noticed a serious problem with her eyesight so got surgery lined up. Her vision has now greatly improved. Had she remained in the Peszel backyard she would have gone blind, suffered serious nutritional deficiencies and remained lonely and anxious. The signs of infection would have also been missed and by now she would surely be dead. Mood changes for example and loss of appetite have been seen in their running commentaries by the Peszels (and quoted earlier) as indicators of Mum’s ‘form’, or state of being and something to be mocked rather than warning signs of ill-health. She misses her partner terribly, as any of us would, but the loneliness is not so crippling now she is in safe hands and she sings and laughs a lot. Less stress, more love. She may die one day and I will be sad or may need a nursing home but I will always sleep easy in my bed. In the meantime I get to enjoy this once in a lifetime experience and opportunity to guide my Mum to a happy ending.

Mum ended up in hospital in August 2023 with another life-threatening e-coli infection and spent a week there. I visited daily of course and later took her home on discharge. David found out about this worrying event while she was in hospital much to Mum’s displeasure as the reaction is always the same and it makes her cringe. He never bothered to call his mum, of course, or even ask how she was or why she was there instead he instantly (literally) sent a message to Anthony to share his dark thoughts. David regurgitates two of his darkest thoughts every time he hears something about his mum and she is sick of it: 1. His hatred of me. 2. His enthusiasm that “one day” his mum will die so he may express his hatred of me some more.

As for his mum. He couldn’t care less. But she is surrounded by love so she’s going to be just fine.

Mum asks every now and again what it is she did to deserve such contempt from these people. With a poor memory she is genuinely curious about the horrific crime she committed that led to all this. I now simply remind her that she has remained true to herself and to those around her and that not everyone holds the same values as she does. “Oh?” There’s a long pause. “Well that’s OK then.”  Isn’t she great!

“They will regret it when I’ve gone. Oh they will regret it. You do harm to your mother and then she goes.” Doreen Mann.

Keith Mann.