The Background
In 2006 a series of events began which very nearly resulted in my death.
I only narrowly survived, only by chance.
My name is Nelson Sharpe. I was born in 1958 in Whitehaven and I am the eldest of three brothers. My younger brother Edwin Sharpe was born on 20th January 1962 and my youngest brother Stephen Sharpe was born on 29th October 1965. As children we all lived in St Bees in West Cumbria in the family home and we attended local schools. I went away to university in Nottingham at 18 years old. I obtained qualifications in Chemistry, worked in the chemical industry on Teeside and then took a staff position at the University of London in 1986.
When young, even though I was the eldest, I found my younger brother Edwin something of a handful because of his short temper. I had my own set of friends. My younger brother Edwin and me would never have been described as close. As young men, whenever I was back in West Cumbria, I tended to tread carefully in our dealings, although on the whole our relationship was not unfriendly. When young, I was very close to my youngest brother Stephen.
In 1990 Edwin set off for a year travelling around the world. He returned early from this world tour in September 1991 in order to attend my youngest brother's funeral. He appeared to have no money left when he returned. I bought him clothes to attend the funeral.
My youngest brother Stephen left school at sixteen and worked at British Nuclear Fuels Ltd Sellafield. On 1st September 1991, at age 25 years, he was killed in a car accident. His death was devastating to my parents. He died leaving no Will. My parents therefore, with regret, found themselves the joint owners of his flat 74 Main Street in Egremont, Cumbria CA22 2DB. The mortgage on this flat was paid off in full by insurance.
My younger brother Edwin moved into the vacant flat left by Stephen's death at 74 Main Street Egremont in October 1991, where he lived rent free. At this time, I was working at King's College London and living in Brixton.
In February 1992 I returned to West Cumbria when my contract at the University of London ended. I moved in with my brother Edwin and we both lived rent free at the flat 74 Main Street in Egremont, which was my parents' property following Stephen's death. After about six months I found that my brother and me were completely incompatible as house-mates. I would find myself retreating to my bedroom, leaving the rest of the flat to my brother, who made it obvious that I best keep out of his way. His behaviour was very selfish. It was obvious that I would have to move out, and so in August 1992 I moved out to live with my parents in St Bees. Curiously, my brother expected me to continue to pay a half share of the utility bills for the flat. He went ballistic when I refused to do so.
On 28th June 1993 my father Mr Nelson Sharpe died of a heart attack aged 60. As a result, my mother, Mrs Jean Sharpe, became the sole owner of both the family home at 4 Victoria Terrace, St Bees and the flat at 74 Main Street, Egremont. My parents bought the property 4 Victoria Terrace in 1976, and the mortgage was paid off. My father and mother had run a B&B business at 4 Victoria Terrace. After my father's death I continued to live with my mother at Victoria Terrace in order to help her continue to run the B&B business. My mother would have found it quite impossible to run the B&B on her own. Also, I like to think I provided moral and practical help for her over the next five years between my father's death in 1993 and 1998, the year when my mother was to sell the house at 4 Victoria Terrace. My mother and I did not live extravagantly whilst at St Bees.
My brother Edwin had various jobs in the general area of engineering as a contract electrician during the period between 1993 and 1998. He also set up and ran a sole-trader mobile phone business at a rented shop in Marlborough Street in Whitehaven, called the “Phonebox”. He also had occasion, at some points, to "sign-on" as registered unemployed during this period.
On 22nd October 1997 my mother reached 60 years of age and began receiving a State Pension. This was on top of the Works Pension which she had been receiving since my father's death as his widow. She wanted to retire at age 60 and she sought to realise the equity in the family home at St Bees in order to buy a retirement bungalow. The house in St Bees went on the market in late 1997. Throughout 1997 and 1998 my mother viewed as many as two dozen properties advertised with local estate agents, with the view to buying. I accompanied her on many of these viewings. She was very keen on one property she viewed at 4 Abbey Vale in St Bees which was advertised at £60K, whose owners came in return to view 4 Victoria Terrace with the notion of a property "exchange" option. My mother also took a fancy to a property at Rannerdale Drive in Whitehaven, also advertised at £60K, for which she put in a cash bid. However both myself and my brother persuaded her the property was not suited for an OAP lady, and her offer was withdrawn. She viewed new build bungalows above the Loop Road in Whitehaven, and took out an option on one.
In late October 1998 the family home in St Bees was sold to Mr Mark Richards who still lives there. Land Registry data records that the sale of 4 Victoria Terrace was completed on 10th July 1998 for £80,000 (9A). The furnishings from 4 Victoria Terrace were put into storage, with the obvious intention that they would be used to furnish her new house, as and when my mother could find one suitable for purchase. Mean time my mother and I moved to the flat at 74 Main Street, Egremont. This required my brother to vacate the flat at Egremont, which annoyed him. It was my mother's intention that she was to live with me in Egremont until she found herself a retirement bungalow to buy. As my mother and I moved into the flat in Egremont, my brother moved out of the flat in Egremont and into a flat which he rented above a joinery shop in Whitehaven.
At this point, October 1998, my mother's savings should have amounted to: £30,000 (from my youngest brother's Estate net of expenses such as the headstone for the grave), £10,000 (from my father’s Estate net of spending) & £78,000 (net from the sale of her house at St Bees). In addition, she owned the property 74 Main Street, Egremont.
Therefore as of 1998, as such, Mrs Jean Sharpe was a wealthy woman.
While living in the flat at Egremont, my mother lived off her pension income. Her only major spending outlays during this period of residence in Egremont between 1998 and 2000 were on double glazing for the flat (say £4K), a new cooker (£350), a new gas boiler (£3K) and a holiday visit for two weeks to San Francisco. I never discussed with my mother her financial affairs. However, it is clear that my mother was still a woman of some considerable wealth.
On 22nd September 2000 the semi-detached property at 8 Craig Drive, Whitehaven was bought for £65,000 (11A). The furniture from the old family home in St Bees was brought out of storage in order to furnish the new house in Whitehaven. My mother then left me and her cat in the flat 74 Main Street at Egremont and she moved to the new house in Whitehaven. From the day I was left alone to live in the flat at Egremont I started to pay rent to my mother at the then market rate of £50 per week. At the same time my mother moved into the new house in Whitehaven, my brother left the flat above the joinery shop which he had been renting in Whitehaven and he moved into the new house at Craig Drive to live together with my mother. My brother is allergic to cats, so my mother's cat remained with me in Egremont.
On the day my mother moved out of the flat in Egremont my mother told me that she had put down a deposit on the new house at 8 Craig Drive, Whitehaven. She told me this as she stood next to the refrigerator in the kitchen of the flat. My brother was carrying my mother's possessions out of the flat when she said this, and I remember that my mother took care to check that Edwin was out of earshot when she spoke to me. I thought nothing of this at the time, but I did notice it.
From the day my mother left the flat in Egremont in September 2000 I was under the impression that it had been my mother who had put down the deposit on the new house in Whitehaven (because she told me she had), and that it was my brother Edwin who paid the interest on the mortgage obtained to finance the remainder of the purchase price of the new house (by way of his rent, as it were). I was paying rent to live at the flat in Egremont, and this is how my mother explained to me the whole arrangement. From 2000 onward, in all conversations with my mother, she and I would always refer to the house at Whitehaven as her house. I did not hesitate to travel over to the new house in Whitehaven whenever my mother asked me to mow the lawn (which was often), or to help with wall-papering or to do odd jobs, e.g. to change the lock on the garage door to one my mother found easier to handle (she suffered from bad arthritis in her hands and fingers). I bought crocus, tulip and lily bulbs to plant in her garden at 8 Craig Drive. I would never have done any of this had it been said to me that the house was my brother's property, and not my mother's.
My mother paid the Council Tax to Copeland Borough Council on the property 8 Craig Drive in full (i.e. she paid the full Council Tax for both that part charged to her and for that part charged to my brother Edwin). She paid the Council Tax from September 2000 for the entire five and a half years up until she was admitted to hospital in 2006. I know this, since she paid this Council Tax using part of the rent which I paid to her for renting the flat at 74 Main Street in Egremont. I would frequently pay the Council Tax on the property 8 Craig Drive myself in person, on her behalf, in cash at the Copeland Borough Council offices, deducting the amount from the four-weekly rent I paid my mother, and the remainder of the rent I would hand to my mother in cash when we met later for lunch in Whitehaven. In effect, it was my rent payments which paid for my mother's bill and for Edwin's bill for Council Tax on 8 Craig Drive.
From the day my mother left the flat in Egremont in 2000 I agreed to pay rent to my mother for me continuing to live alone with the cat at the flat 74 Main Street at the rate of £50 per week. In September 2000 this was the going market rate. I continued to pay rent every four-weeks at this rate until six weeks before her death, some 5½ years later, over which period of time of 280 weeks I paid over to my mother a total of £14,000 in rent. In addition, I covered all the utility bills and the Council Tax at the flat in Egremont.
From around 2001 my brother's behaviour towards me changed, and he became increasingly difficult on a more regular basis when we met. His attitude to me became more critical, insulting and belittling. As a result, I found it easier to have as little as possible to do with him on account of his customary unpleasantness. It became known throughout the family that there was bad blood between us. In truth my part in the relationship was principally that of "being on the receiving end" of whatever mood my brother was in. I asked my mother on several occasions why my brother seemed at times “to hate the ground I walked on", since I honestly could not think what I had ever done to my brother to warrant his behaviour. I was genuinely intrigued, but no explanation was given. I decided not to let it bother me. I just kept out of his way.
I basically didn't speak to my brother from 2001 onward. When I visited my mother at 8 Craig Drive I would visit when my brother was not present. Apart from keeping her company, I would visit for instance to mow the lawn fairly regularly and to do odd jobs about the house when asked. Why my brother didn't mow the lawn was a mystery to me, since he actually lived in the house with my mother. My mother had arthritis in her hands and so I often helped my mother with her shopping trips in Whitehaven in which she would do the weekly shop for the house at Craig Drive at the local supermarkets. She more often than not paid for these weekly shops with her credit card. Naturally, I assumed that Edwin re-imbursed my mother for his part share of the food and groceries which she bought.
Also it was I who would help my mother in the upkeep and maintenance of the family plot and headstone in the graveyard at St Bees Church, the appearance about which she was very particular. I mowed the grass on the grave.
My mother and I kept in touch over our mobile phones. I was in Egremont and she at the house in Whitehaven, and whenever there was no mobile phone signal, I would phone my mother using the land-line to 8 Craig Drive. On these occasions when my brother answered he was invariably surly or outright abusive and insulting to me. He was always unpleasant. On a couple of occasions he refused to hand the phone on to my mother and put the phone down. On occasion he stepped in to interrupt the conversation my mother and I were having. I often got the impression that my mother was in the back room of the house on her own.
My mother's estimated cash wealth in October 1998 was £118,000 (see earlier paragraph 9). On 29th August 2001, nearly a year after my mother had moved to the new house in Whitehaven, my mother took out a Barclaycard credit card (19A) using my address 74 Main Street in Egremont, despite having moved to Craig Drive the previous year. When the monthly Barclaycard statement arrived by post at the flat in Egremont, I would take the letter through to Whitehaven and hand it to my mother. However I was never made aware of the letter's contents. I have since contacted Barclaycard. According to her Experian Credit Report, on 22nd February 2002 my mother took out a second credit card, this time with Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS), but this time using the address 8 Craig Drive in Whitehaven (19B). My mother had never taken out credit cards before in her life. Why she chose to take out two credit cards over the period 18 months after her move to Craig Drive in September 2000 is unclear, but it seems likely she had become short of ready cash. Further, my mother's Experian Credit Report records that my mother took out a loan with the Bank of Scotland in February 2002 (19C).
A routine had developed from after my mother had moved out of the Egremont flat that she returned every Saturday to Egremont to see me and the family cat, a black and white cat called "Star". We would watch the horse racing on t.v. and I would cook a meal and she would stay the night. She said this suited everyone since it left the house in Whitehaven free for my brother's use at the weekend.
Just before Christmas 2004 my mother was diagnosed with bowel cancer, and had major surgery in January 2005 to have part of her bowel removed. The operation was performed by Mr Marco Christaldi. At the time, a full recovery seemed a better than 50/50 out-come. Following the surgery she went on to receive courses of radiotherapy at Carlisle and later in 2005 she was started on chemo-therapy and morphine at the West Cumberland Hospital. Her consultant oncologist was Dr J J Nichol. I accompanied her to most of her consultations. My mother in typically determined fashion worked hard on her recovery from surgery, and was looking very well over the summer of 2005. Everyone said so, including her consultant. Her chemo-therapy was discontinued.
Over Christmas 2005 my mother stayed with me at Egremont at the weekend for the last time. In retrospect she had become noticeably under-weight by this stage. Her pallor was unhealthy, which she disguised with more and more make-up. In the New Year of 2006 she became too ill to make the journey from Whitehaven to Egremont.
In Jan/Feb 2006 my mother took to her sick bed and did not leave the house at Craig Drive in Whitehaven again, not even to attend appointments with her consultant Dr Nichol. Nurses and her G.P. visited her at home. In early 2006 I was attending a 13-week computer course but I insisted that I finished shortly after 12:00 noon each weekday and so I was able to visit my mother most every afternoon at the house in Whitehaven to try to keep her spirits up. On 24th February I visited her and found she had become shockingly dehydrated and exhausted. Her G.P. attended her at home and had her admitted to the West Cumberland Hospital onto the General Wards. From here onward over the next four months she was to remain on the wards and her dosage of morphine was increased as pain control management demanded. Bowel cancer is a distressing condition to suffer from. She was moved on from the general wards to the Palliative Ward once doctors agreed there was nothing more that could be done for her by way of cure. Rather touchingly, the doctors called me to their offices and imparted this news to me, so that I could then tell my mother. It should be noted that throughout all her stay in hospital she remained lucid and coherent, right up until before her final hours.
I visited her every day she was in hospital, at about noon or a little after, save for one monday when I was ill. The longer she was in hospital and as she became increasingly bed-ridden, she was to become more easily tired. However, being a determined lady, she worked hard to stay alert when she had visitors, who included relatives and friends. Only my brother and myself visited her in her last month of life.
At 6.00am on 23rd June 2006 my Mother died in the West Cumberland Hospital. She was interred at St Bees Church graveyard.