By Kristy Phillips

A dear friend called me last week with a tragic story. It seems her daughter who lives on the other side of the country had tried to commit suicide and was fortunately stopped when her astute sister called and could tell she was drugged. The paramedics were notified and came in time.  It seems that her mentally ill daughter felt her husband would be better off without her.

Fortunately the daughter is on new medication and while she is doing better, things are still tenuous because the husband does not want her to be on medicine or in the hospital. The neighbor asked me what she could do and I recommended a guardian divorce.

A guardian divorce can be forced by a family when a person can no longer rationally take care of themselves and the spouse is not taking care of them or is harming them.  A guardian divorce works in cases of mental illness or advanced age.  Say “sweet young thing” marries your aged parent and then neglects them. You can probably get a guardian divorce.

Getting a guardian divorce isn’t easy to do, but it is possible.  It is something you should only do in extreme cases – such as abuse or other threatening events.  For the typical “golddigger,” you would be better off getting a conservator named. A conservator is appointed by the court to look out for someone else’s money.