Who was Lee so darn proud of? and why?

[LambChop]

Have you ever had to stand before a crowd and deliver a Eulogy for someone you love? When my step father died much to my surprise my family, who everyone thinks are all just alike...reacted so differently .My older brother was very ,very brief. That was sooooo not him. My mother couldn't bring herself to give any remarks at all, so she refrained. God forgive me, but I have never seen my mom be quiet for longer than three minutes. MAX!!!! I was shaking at the podium, nervous for the first time in my life. I didn't want his long time friends and the vets there to think it was in poor taste, but, I tried to talk about happy things that I loved about him. My second brother cranked it up a notch and had the crowd roaring in laughter, several times. When my sister got up there, she fell to pieces. I mean sobbing, uncontrollably...my brothers helped her take her seat. ( We had worried that maybe our nieced and nephews were too young to come, but boy were we wrong!!!)
We didn't expect this but I guess my five year old niece just assumed that we all get a turn, she got up and faced the crowd, she kind of ran her little hand across the flag draped over the coffin and she said, "Well...Papa just got too old and too tired, so he went to be with Jesus". Even the volunteers that were there in their full military dress wear that gave the salutes and folded the flag, had tears in their eyes when she spoke the plain, simple truth.

You really don't know how weird and disorienting it is to stand up there and do someone justice until you have to do it. Even gathering old photos together and writing the program are super hard, trying to sum up someone's life in a paragraph or two.

There are plenty of things that I have found morally offensive in this case. Whatever Lee said that day , how and why is just not one of them.

I in no way want to change anyone's opinion, if you think he was a jerk that day, it is ok. Like one of the posters said, it is what makes w/s wonderful. You learn a lot about people here and surprisingly... you learn about yourself.

How wonderful children are during these times. They see things as they are. When my husband died two of my grandson's in their young teens spoke. I was floored as to how mature they were. LE was there with an honor guard and there was not a dry eye in the house as the boys spoke. One officer (a woman) actually had to fall out and she left. But they spoke from their hearts. I believe that is what Lee was doing. Death of a loved one is such a personal thing to each of us so you are absolutely right it is hard to get up there and speak with your emotions hanging by a thin thread. God Bless our children.

 

[Leila]

IMO he was proud for Casey keeping family secrets from being revealed.

I agree...........all the Anthonys seem to fear something being revealed. When he said he was so proud, all I could think of was that Casey hasn't done anything but keep her mouth shut, so that must be why he's so proud.

 

[Leila]

thanks jbean-- i do believe he loved each of them so i guess theres not much more to post on this . thank you for the info

Perhaps in that comment, "I'm so proud of you", he was referring to all three?

 

[LambChop]

Or, he was proud of Caylee because she was the one person who loved him unconditionally.

 

[Leila]

The "CMA" was loaded three times over. The child's name was Caylee, and it was her memorial service. He could have just used her first name, as most people do in such circumstances. I think the use of "CMA" was deliberate, but I don't pretend to know what it actually meant. I can surmise, though.

JMHO

I think most presume that CMA is the shared initials of Caylee, Casey, and Cindy.

What bothered me most about the memorial service is that it was not personal and devoted to Caylee and Caylee only and it should have been. I took the use of CMA as a means to cover up to whom the comments were directed. I don't think the comments were directed at Caylee, as it would have been more direct and personal to use her name.

 

[Just Jayla]

Jayla, I think that is spot on!!! I watched the ZFG depo again and what I took away from it was exactly as you described. Morgan would ask him things like didn't you call sis on it and say I know that is a lie. Lee would answer no, I have explained to you that was not my "strategy". He went on to detail if you are trying to gleam information from someone you have to believe them for them to continue divulging things to you. So the "I believe everything my sister tells me, because I have to" was explained with the dots pretty close together, and we see the little grin as he and Morgan chuckle. If you need a strategy to talk to your sibling, you are on to her, all day long. We heard him tell her she was lying and he knew she had lied to mom for five weeks, and that everything she had told police was a lie. We heard that on the very first phone call from jail. So, we know he is not naive. He plays her game to try to find clues in her lies. Lee avoiding each and every hearing in the case tells us where Lee stands. There is no boss in America that wouldn't let you take your lunch early or have two hours off in the morning and make it up after five if you had a family member on trial. He doesn't want to stand by her.The only action that would be more overt on his part would be to come to the hearings and sit on the prosecution side , front and center. imho

Exactly! And the odd laughter between sentences-This may be his way of staying on course, "resetting" himself-He is in a precarious position.

You are spot on as to why he is not at those court dates, too. Great thinking, and if this is truly what he is thinking (we're human like him, can't be that far off), then LA could be a better man than I have given him credit for.

Yes, he could only impress me further by actually nailing her butt to the wall in court. But I think he started out with this investigative/'fake-out KC' technique in order to know for himself, not necessarily to help LE. So we'll see how he decides to handle that on the stand. Remember that LE wired TL for a meeting with LA, I think they knew LA's number one goal was to figure things out for his own purposes, and they wanted to make sure there wasn't anything LA was not telling them. I don't think LA set out to lie to the cops or John Morgan, but he wasn't in their "bag" either.

It has become Door A (help KC and his family by lying/window dressing) and Door B (Tell the truth for Caylee and keep himself safe from possible perjury charges).

Perhaps, just perhaps......Luka and LA with the mention of "Lee could face charges" was purposely put out there so as to mask the fact that he was kinda working against KC. CA would have been horrified if she knew LA was investigating having KC in mind as the suspect. At the same time, LA would just tell CA he was investigating ZFG and others, so CA suggested he talk to DC about an internship-But LA has a good job, he would not really want to do that.

ETA-I am copying this post over to LA thread, it is not very topical here (Sorry mods!)

 

[OneLostGrl]

The more I think about the CMA crap the more I think he was saying it to mess with us (the public.. who they resented for wanting a "public memorial"). They all slipped their little passive-aggressive "she was ours and not yours, who the F are you people to claim you are mourning her when you didn't even know her" in their speeches. I ca't help but to wonder if this CMA thing may have been just another of their childish games.

 

[cloud]

Until I read Lee's interview with LE again I thought he was talking to Casey at the memorial service. I just thought he had an odd way of saying things but was trying to get a message out to her.

Now I think everything he said was directed to Caylee. The little girl that never had a chance. My take on Lee's interview with LE was that he can see right through Casey. She didn't fool him in the least growing up and through the past years since she had Caylee. Lee did say "I believe everything my sister tells me" BUT THEN HE ADDED "because I have to." I think Lee has his own mind and knows exactly who killed Caylee but for the sake of his mother, who he really does love, he keeps his thoughts to himself.

I don't know why he kept saying CMA over and over but I sincerely believe he meant Caylee. His voice kept breaking and I got the impression that he couldn't bring himself to say Caylee's name out loud or he would have totally broken. It was Caylee's ashes in the bracelet that he kissed and I think the kiss was meant for his little Caylee.

I believe it is possible to be proud of a two year old. He might have been proud of how smart she was and all of the cute little things that she did. He might have been proud to take her places and show her off. Proud of how cute she was and her singing so cute. He might have been proud to be her uncle. Lots of things.

I hear what you're saying. But if he could say CMA over and again, he could have at least honoured his niece by speaking her name: Caylee. I think there was more to it than his emotions, and I also think it wasn't his doing, but that he was almost "following instructions".

But that's just my opinion.

 

[cloud]

I think most presume that CMA is the shared initials of Caylee, Casey, and Cindy.

What bothered me most about the memorial service is that it was not personal and devoted to Caylee and Caylee only and it should have been. I took the use of CMA as a means to cover up to whom the comments were directed. I don't think the comments were directed at Caylee, as it would have been more direct and personal to use her name.

I agree, Leila. That's what makes it so strange. I have only one niece. Would I ever refer to her by her initials? Not ever. That's why I say his statement and the use of CMA was loaded - because his niece (whose memorial it was, after all!!) and his mother and his sister share the same initials. I don't think he was addressing Caylee, at least not all of the time. I think he was trying to address all three at the same time.

Do I have a problem with that? Not at all. But I just think he and family shouldn't pretend that it was specifically for Caylee. Yet another little deception and sleight of hand... Pretty tawdry at any time, but especially at a little girl's memorial service.

JMHO

 

[nanny1]

I think his speech was more directed to Casey than to Caylee.

Poor Caylee gets pushed into the background again. Casey is the star and Lee is her supporter. After all, there is nothing else they could do for Caylee....

At the very least, he should have respected Caylee's passing and saved all the CMA stuff for the cameras later, not at Caylee's funeral. His actions, IMO, speak for the whole family: they want the whole world to see how "united" they are... people who are truly united with their families and/or friends can tell BS from miles away when it's faked, or overdone.

I can think of one CMA who might have orcherstrated that. It didn't work. In fact, it failed dismally - it had the opposite effect.

JMHO

I also feel that it was for Casey. I guess I don't understand why the green clover pin was being worn at Caylee's Memorial Mass. I vote it was mean't for Casey!!

 

[littlemisslegal]

I also feel that it was for Casey. I guess I don't understand why the green clover pin was being worn at Caylee's Memorial Mass. I vote it was mean't for Casey!!

was it a three leaf clover? one for each cma? lol reminds me of a lil lepracon

 

[cloud]

I also feel that it was for Casey. I guess I don't understand why the green clover pin was being worn at Caylee's Memorial Mass. I vote it was mean't for Casey!!

I think it was for the other CMA.

Now they can work out of their own cobwebs. I thought Caylee was such a lovely and beautiful child, and soul.

Between them, they've destroyed her, each for their own reasons. What a shame on them all.

I don't care how many pins they wear, how many bracelets, or how many icons they bow to, or how many prayers they say. They know. And that wouldn't be easy at all.

JMHO

 

[OneLostGrl]

was it a three leaf clover? one for each cma? lol reminds me of a lil lepracon

He reminds me of a lil lepracon, uumm minion, uumm robot. Something but definitly not a grieving uncle or a man with a mind of his own.

 

[cloud]

Perhaps in that comment, "I'm so proud of you", he was referring to all three?

He could have... though I don't really see anything to be proud of in two of those instances. The first, no problem at all - she was a princess, a darling, a sweet and precious child. The other two... hum.

JMHO

 

[Lexington]

I noticed that George and Cindy were super proud of Lee. George was welling up with emotion and Cindy looked transported. If KC, were watching I can imagine she was rolling her eyes and saying to herself "Shut the F up, you're embarrassing me, now everybody in here knows I have a dufus for a brother".

 

[Bobbisangel]

This is transcribed from the Caylee Marie Anthony Memorial Service . It is Lee's speech.

Lee Anthony steps up to the microphone and begins:

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that has had any sort of role in making today a special day. Thank you.

If I could ask something from anybody that was willing to hear it it would be this. For those of us that are frightened or angry or mournful or that just don't undertstand, I ask that you fill your heart with patience and grace and you allow yourself to yield any judgements that you may already have.

For those of us that will never be the same again, I ask that you feel, fill your heart with hope and forgiveness and you allow yourself to cope and heal.

Finally, for those of us that have the knowledge and the means to facilitate the answers that my family deserves, I ask that you fill your heart with compassion and truth and I ask that you allow your conscience to speak for you when your mind cannot comprehend the right words to say.

I sincerely hope that this day allows those affected by it to take from it whatever it is that you need to take. If it's closure you seek here today, I certainly hope you're able to find it.

Today is the day to remember.
Today is the day to pay tribute.
Today is the day for this family to unite and display their solidarity and strength. I've gotta tell you, it is hard to stand up here and be the pillar of strength.

This family is united, but this family is incomplete. I'm incomplete. I, uh, I'm broken.

CMA-(he kisses his wrist bracelet 2 times) CMA
Each day you continue to teach me about life and about the way it should be lived. Each day you give me the ability to be strong or to be weak.
It's been so long since I've been able to see you or to hug you or to tell you how much you mean to me.

CMA- I miss you. I love you.

CMA- I am so proud of you. I hope you're proud of me too. I need you to know that I will never forget the promise that I made to you.

I will never forget.

I just listened to Lee really carefully. He never says Caylee's name at all BUT I feel that everything he said after the halfway mark was about Caylee or directed straight to her. I will never believe he was talking to Casey. He could go to the jail to see her or write to her or talk to her on the phone. I believe tht Casey would talk to him she just doesn't want to see her parents.
I don't know why Lee uses Caylee's anitials but he does. I just don't think he could say her name out loud. When he starts talking to her he can hardly talk his voice is so shaky. Until then he was pretty calm. I believe he was expressing his feelings about Caylee and he told her how proud of her he was and how much he loved her. I think his promise to her is to find out who murdered her...''Uncle Lee will find out who did this honey...I promise you."
Makes perfect sense to me. Lee being proud of Caylee makes perfect sense to me too. She was a little girl that an uncle would have taken pride in. Maybe he was proud that she was his neice just because she was.

I find it interesting that Lee never shows up in court and he could if he really wanted to. He doesn't hit the tv shows with his parents...doesn't mingle with the media and really never has. No interviews for him. It's almost like he has seperated himself from his sociopathic sister. He knows what she is and what she has done and I'll bet he knows that she isn't even one tiny bit sorry.

 

[Tuffy]

I just listened to Lee really carefully. He never says Caylee's name at all BUT I feel that everything he said after the halfway mark was about Caylee or directed straight to her. I will never believe he was talking to Casey. He could go to the jail to see her or write to her or talk to her on the phone. I believe tht Casey would talk to him she just doesn't want to see her parents.
I don't know why Lee uses Caylee's anitials but he does. I just don't think he could say her name out loud. When he starts talking to her he can hardly talk his voice is so shaky. Until then he was pretty calm. I believe he was expressing his feelings about Caylee and he told her how proud of her he was and how much he loved her. I think his promise to her is to find out who murdered her...''Uncle Lee will find out who did this honey...I promise you."
Makes perfect sense to me. Lee being proud of Caylee makes perfect sense to me too. She was a little girl that an uncle would have taken pride in. Maybe he was proud that she was his neice just because she was.

I find it interesting that Lee never shows up in court and he could if he really wanted to. He doesn't hit the tv shows with his parents...doesn't mingle with the media and really never has. No interviews for him. It's almost like he has seperated himself from his sociopathic sister. He knows what she is and what she has done and I'll bet he knows that she isn't even one tiny bit sorry.

I find it interesting too. I'm not sure that he would be able to go though. Maybe he has a really hectic work schedule? If he was able to take off work, and just chooses not to go, I don't understand that.

If he really is so concerned about his niece, why won't he be there for her? She doesn't have any family on her side now. Grandma and Grandpa are on the defense side. All Caylee has are prosecutors.

I also don't get the use of her initials at her memorial. To me it sounded forced. It didn't roll off his tongue like maybe he always calls her CMA. Part of Caylee's name is his name. Why would he not call her Caylee? I can't even guess why someone would do this.

It's just my opinion, but he really odd behavior makes him appear uncaring to me. I could be wrong, maybe he's just really odd.

 

[1SweetNov]

I always thought LA was talking directly to the living members of his family - no one else.