Long Island, NY – Two brothers want to yank their dad out of his final resting place – and move him far away from the wife he is accused of tormenting in her dying days.
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David Fuld could have eternity disrupted by sons Fred and Michael, who are suing to boot him from a family plot in a Long Island cemetery, where he was interred in August next to his wife, Roslyn.
The long-buried family feud is unearthed in a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit that says David Fuld was “indifferent and hostile” toward his ailing wife when she was on her deathbed in 1996 – making her life miserable and then skipping her funeral.
“I want to honor her last wishes that he not be buried there,” Fred Fuld said. “Not long before she died, this was her expressed request to me.”
The brothers are suing their sister, Cathy Moskowitz, and Mount Ararat Cemetery, charging that they ignored Roslyn Fuld’s wishes by allowing her husband of nearly 45 years to be buried alongside her.
The frail 68-year-old Long Island woman unsuccessfully tried to get a divorce in the last year of her life, when her sons say David Fuld’s “appalling” antics included cutting off the power to her part of the house, sabotaging her car and blasting a stereo late at night.
“This was really not new behavior for him,” said Fred Fuld, 54. “How he could do this when she was that ill, I just don’t know.”
According to the suit, Cathy Moskowitz said, “Fred, death is all about forgiveness,” when her brother protested that their dad should not be buried in any of the eight sites in the family plot at the Farmingdale cemetery.
“Three feet is not okay, and 5 feet is not okay, either,” said Fred Fuld, a Manhattan lawyer. “And there he is, right next to my mother.”
Moskowitz, 49, did not return calls to her Lido Beach, L.I., home, and cemetery officials could not be reached.
Roslyn Fuld, who purchased the family plot more than 25 years ago, was temporarily left a quadriplegic by breast cancer in 1987. The suit says her suffering did little to stop her husband’s cruelty that was “nothing less than appalling.”
“He did everything possible … to make her remaining days as difficult and unpleasant as possible,” the suit says.
Fred and Michael Fuld, 55, accuse Moskowitz and the cemetery of tactics “utterly intolerable in a civilized community” and seek to have them pay for a new gravesite – far away from the family plot.
“This was my mother’s expressed request to me, that he not be buried near her,” he said. “This was the only control she had over what he did.”
I think its a tzavuas Rav Yehudah chasid that people that hate each others should not be buried next to each other
I’m sure Mrs. Fuld has long forgiven her husband. Now her children have to put their difficult past behind them before it destroys their future.
Now, if only grown children who observe one parent’s vicious, unfair behavior towards the other ( even long AFTER a divorce ) would get involved BEFORE 120 !!!!
Grown kids don’t realize the power that they hold – often, the only thing this type of person cares about is “looking good” so adult children can threaten to walk away from that parent if they don’t behave in an ethical way. This also makes re-marriage harder, because a potential new spouse would want to know why this person is estranged from their children – a question the community should be asking, as well.
R’L’ what a horrible story.
I think it would be easies they should move her to a new plot
The story is sad and tragic, however if what they say there father did was true he was obviously meshuga and had issues. A normal person even if they hate someone does not treat a sick dying person in such a manner as to cut off power or play a stereo loudly. It is unfortunate that the help he needed did not happen in his lifetime. It is a terrible Rachmonus on this story all aounrd if true as reported.
We must keep in mind that we will never ever know the whole story of this case.It is such a shame how a private family issue has become public knowledge the sadness for all sides must be horrible and it sad for all of Bnei Yisroel . We must Daven and do our best teshuva that machlokes and embarrassment never happen to any Yiddishe family. Only simchas and a Lechtige Chanuka to inspire and Bring sweet Mazel to all of Klal Yisroel.
Interesting dilemma. Who do we have to honor more? Father or Mother? The halacha is that when you have a conflicting request from both parents, you must obey (fullfill) the father’s request. The reason for treating the father with precedence is that the wife (mother) must honor her husband as well. Now what if the father left town and the mother makes a request that conflicts with the father’s wishes? What if the mother makes a request and passes away? The obligation to honor one’s father (where ever he may reside) is still in effect. Does this obligation to honor now cancel the last request of the mother???
This case is sad. Sad that parents fights have now transferred to children and perhaps grandchildren etc…. Sad that someone could be so mean when the person that have spent half a century with get sick and dies. Sad that these people will be remembered not for the good times that must have had but for the fighting and the case (law) that their children bring before the courts.
If she purchased the cemetary plot and than subsequently died it is yerushos ishto and belongs to the husband outright irrespective of how he treated her. her request should have no status, can someone deny Reuven from using his own property
Let us not forget the cherem kadmonim of defaming the dead. To bring this issue, as well as theri deceased fathers behaviour to the public eye is also surely something that “ain ruach chachomim nocha haymenu.”