Thousands of grandparents in Washington state are grieving every day over the loss of their grandchildren. These losses are caused by parents getting divorced, death, breakups, drug addiction, and disagreements between parents and grandparents.
Remarriage after a death or divorce will cause a separation between bonded grandparents and their grandchildren because the new spouse wants nothing to do with the “old” family. Also, more parents are using their own children as pawns to get what they want from their parents and when their parents run out of money or means, they literally rip the grandchildren from the grandparents’ lives even though these grandparents have been loving their grandchildren without fail throughout their young lives.
Washington state is the only state in the union that, as of 2000, has no grandparent/grandchild visitation law. Lori Paine, a member of the group Grandparents’ Rights of Washington, is the sponsor of Initiative 1431. We need to get 340,000 registered voters’ signatures by July 1 in order to get Initiative 1431 on this year’s ballot.
You may think this situation will never affect your family. I used to think that, too, but it has and is. Call 509-378-0027 and I will get the Initiative 1431 form to you for signing. This is real, this is hurting our grandchildren, and it’s hurting us grandparents deeply. Our futures are depending on this.
