Nina Bell - Redeemed Marine

My mother Yukie Higgins was a resident of Burlington, NJ since 1975. She lived in the same house
(2028 Columbus Road) for the entire time with her husband Harry Higgins (he was a small engine repair
person). They lived comfortably until January 1998 when her husband (my step dad) passed away. That’s
when everything started.
Upon my dad’s death, Bob Beckett and his wife Hilda became my mother’s best friends. They would
come and check on her, bring her food, stating they would help her any way possible. Once my dad
passed away, they came in and told her she didn’t need any of his equipment so she could just give it to
the church (Fountain of Life). They didn’t offer her a dime for it, just took it. It was probably worth
about a couple of thousand dollars. I would talk to her every morning and she would tell me about her
activities of the prior day and what she had planned for the current day. She kept telling me about the
church and what they were doing as far as coming and doing minor repairs on her home. She never
mentioned to me that she had started to pay them $800.00 a month for the bills.
I would occasionally ask her if she needed money to pay the taxes on the house. I was sending her about
$200.00 a month to help with the taxes for the 1st year, based on the tax bill that I saw, which was about
1000.00 every quarter I think. About 2001 she got ill and had to go into the hospital. I came down to
make sure she was okay. In the meantime, I started snooping again among her things. I found they had
taken her to their attorney Frederick Hardt, Moorestown, NJ, had a will and 2 Power of Attorneys written
up, at that time, since I am her only child, I had a POWER OF ATTY written to revoke theirs. She had to
go into rehab (recovering from a stroke). While I was visiting, Mr. Beckett came by the house to ask if I
had her RENT money!!! I asked him what was he talking about. He merely stated that the church now
owned the house. I told him that was impossible, this was my parents house, he said okay and left. After
he left, I then started to look for paperwork. I came across foreclosure notices, cancelled checks written to
the Fountain of Life and so on. I was very upset. The next day, I went to the County Clerk, pulled the
records and found out that Fountain of Life had actually let the house go into a Tax lien foreclosure for
1100.00, I was livid. They had been taking her money and not paying the taxes purposely. I went to the
nursing home and questioned my mom…she looked as though she didn’t know what I was talking about.
I asked her if she sold the house to them, she stated NO, they were paying the taxes and the mortgage for
her. I called several people, they couldn’t help. I called the church and spoke with Mr. Boudwin. He
claimed it was their house and nothing I could do about it and that they legally obtained the house. When
I called the attorney, he told me he couldn’t speak to me because she was not a client of his, the church
was his client.
My mom had major upgrades done to the house, new windows, doors, roof and new above ground oil tank
installed, still while paying them monthly.
I came back to Michigan and tried to speak with an attorney here, nothing they could do because it was
out of Michigan. At that point, I couldn’t trust anyone in Burlington, because everyone belonged to that
church. So, I left it alone.
Fast forward to 2006, when I visited for Christmas, I had to have my mom admitted back into the hospital
12­23­06, found out she had stage 5 lung cancer, they put her on a ventilator and started telling me about
'quality of life'. I explained to them I wanted her to be comfortable until her time came.
Now keep in mind, whenever I visited, not one soul from that church came to talk to me about anything
except when they were going to get paid. I told them to wait on it, I wasn’t giving them a dime. I tried to
sell the house, but when the real estate guy put the sign up, he was told he couldn’t do it, because it wasn’t
her's to sell.
My mother passed on February 4, 2007. I was at the house packed up what I wanted and just left
everything in the house that I didn’t want. I couldn’t grieve due to the stress they has caused.
My feelings are, if she was in financial trouble, they could have called me and I would have taken care of
it. We could have done a reverse mortgage or anything. I could have had it refinanced, something to keep
the house in the family.
Little did I know, prior to my mother’s death, they actually had the deed transferred into their name,
signed off on all the paperwork stating they were her Attorney, while in fact…I had the Power of
Attorney, not them.
I feel as though they prey on people to get what they want, that’s going to benefit them and whoever tries
to come in between that, they just tell them 'We have the POWER'.
Not once, while she was in the hospital, did they ever show their faces, call me to check her status or
anything of that nature. They just wanted her money. They even had the nerve to deduct her January and
February payments from her account without notifiying me. I didn’t find out until I was trying to get her
funeral arrangements taken care of.
They call themselves a church, really…I don’t think so. Churches are supposed to do what's best for their
neighbor. Not steal from their neighbor.
Nina Bell