Alicia Witt has opened up about her grief at losing her parents a month after they were discovered. Dead in their home in Worcester, Massachusetts.
The “Orange Is the New Black”and “The Walking Dead” alum, 46, penned an emotional tribute to her parents, Robert, 87, Diane Witt, 75, on FacebookTuesday, keep them in your thoughts “brilliant educators, deeply kind, curious, intuitive, wise, young at heart (and) funny.”
“it still doesn’t feel real,”She wrote. “our last words to each other were ‘i love you’. that part was simple; never in doubt. they loved me so. i loved them so.”
Witt described how she was scared when she didn’t hear back from her parents. So she called someone to check on them. Though she wrote that she was “praying fervently that the next call would be from them,”She was aware of her knowledge when she “heard the detective’s voice on the other line that they were gone.”
Though Witt did not reveal her parents’ cause of death, she noted their “sudden passings have become fodder for press, and there are some misconceptions rolling around.”
“this is very delicate for me to write because i’m wanting to honor their privacy, which they held so tightly,”She continued. “i never imagined i would have to talk about this publicly – much less, amidst overwhelming floods of grief.”
Witt went on to describe how she wasn’t allowed inside her parents’ home for over a decade and that every time she tried to have something repaired for them, her parents refused to let workers enter the house.
“i begged, cried, tried to reason with them, tried to convince them to let me help them move – but every time, they became furious with me, telling me i had no right to tell them how to live their lives,”She wrote. “it was not for a lack of trying on my part.”
She continued: “i struggle, as much as i helped, with what else could i have done – short of petitioning the court system for taking control of two otherwise very sharp, very independent, very capable adults. they were a united, intertwined, indivisible force, determined to do things their own way. knowing they had each other – battling them the way i would have had to in order to do this truly felt like it would have destroyed them.”
They were discovered by a relative who asked police to join him for a wellness exam at 9:15 on Dec. 20, 2018. The previous night was the coldest of the month, with temperatures bottoming out at 15 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
“i had no idea that their heat had gone out,” Witt wrote. “i will never understand how or why they made the choice not to tell me this, not to let me help them with this. my heart is broken. and even if i could have had a crystal ball and looked into the future- if i could have said to them ‘you are going to break my heart and the hearts of all who love you with a worst-case-scenario ending if you don’t let us help you’ – i still think they would have made the same choices.”
Witt said she attended a “beautiful service and burial” for her parents in Worcester earlier this month, where she was able “to mourn and to celebrate them in total privacy.”
Neighbors said the couple were somewhat reclusive; rarely did they turn on lights or come outside, and knocks at the door often went unanswered. Court records reveal that they had no television or computer.
Robert Witt, a former teacher, was diagnosed with cancer and confined to the couple’s home at the recommendation of his doctor because of the risk of COVID-19, according to court documents.
Court documents indicate Diane Witt may have had health problems related to damage to their home from the ice storm of Dec. 12, 2008. Records show that Diane said she suffered “severe problems with (her) breathing, with sleeping, congestion and nosebleeds,”Along with “difficulty with her memory (and) with communication”Because of fiberglass and mold exposure.
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The dispatcher informed the officers that the responders had been contacted by a relative who loaned them a space heater after their furnace quit working one week prior. Officers were also informed that the couple had a dog. “compromised immune systems.”
Officials stated that firefighters tested the air quality in the house and found no noxious gasses. However, this was after other emergency personnel had entered and exited the home, opening doors which could have caused any gas to evaporate.
Adam Roche, Deputy Fire Chief, stated that space heaters could pose dangers. Heaters that use fossil fuels such as propane must be vented to the outside to prevent a buildup of carbon monoxide, an odorless gas that can be deadly.
A neighbor said the furnace had been broken for far more than a week, recalling that in 2018, when the heating system was faulty, the couple declined the neighbor’s offer to fix it.
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A couple filed a lawsuit in 2011 alleging that Hanover Insurance didn’t adequately cover the damage to their home. Documents however show that Hanover Insurance paid more that $110,000.
Hanover’s lawyer however, wrote the 2017 article. “Apart from certain rudimentary repairs, the plaintiffs have made no effort to repair or replace the damage to their home, and it remains in a state of disrepair to this date.”
Another neighbor talked about how proud the Witts were of Alicia, boasting about her accomplishments and looking forward to her visits. Alicia Witt has been in TV and movies such as “The Walking Dead,” “Twin Peaks,” “Orange is the New Black,” “Dune,” “The Sopranos.”
Robert and Diane’s causes of death and manner of dying have not been revealed.
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Contributing: Kim Ring, Telegram & Gazette
