Woman who lived with dead mom for 14 months trying to save home

Gail Andrews admits she lived with her dead mother’s skeleton for 14 months in a run-down home, but contends that’s no reason for Lee County Code Enforcement officials to raze her Fort Myers home and leave her homeless, reports the Naples Daily News . She left her mother in her home and on June 4, when Lee County Sheriff’s deputies did a wellness check, they smelled a foul odor, saw a house full of trash and rats and mice running around inside, according to a sheriff’s report, which says Andrews told them her mother had gone to Connecticut. A week later, they obtained a search warrant and found Gladys Andrews’ skeleton inside; she would have been 88 this year, reports the Naples Daily News. Andrews, who taught in Lee County schools for 20 years, has until next Tuesday to remove her belongings. She can’t afford a company to clean the home, a fee one business estimated at $16,000. But a minister provided her with some help: He had high school students clean the yard. Andrews told the Naples Daily News, “It was a miracle. All the yard waste is piled up. It looks like

a gray wall.” And she’s receiving some free legal help through attorney Matthew Toll of Cape Coral, reports the Naples Daily News. “She died. I couldn’t bring her back, I couldn’t resurrect her,” Andrews told the Naples Daily News, declining to talk about cashing her mother’s Social Security checks due to a pending investigation. “I knew the house would be demolished. I was just stalling for time. I was very ill.” Andrews contends it would be more costly for the county to have to deal with her homelessness and possible medical costs than to allow her to fix the home, according to the Naples Daily News. FloriDUH’s earlier post: Woman found living with skeleton, believed to be her mother Photo: (Andrew West/news-press.com) Lee County Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene technician, Elaine Flaherty, left, along with other crime scene technicians investigate the scene where the skeletal remains believed to belong to an 89-year-old woman were found in her south Fort Myers home Friday night by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office. More FloriDUH

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Woman who lived with dead mom for 14 months trying to save home

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