Following the passing a few days ago of the poorest little rich girl in the world, the Johnson family has announced they will raise Ava, the little girl who Casey was determined would have a different upbringing than she did.
"Everyone was surprised when Casey announced that she wanted to adopt a baby," a friend remembers. "She was a baby herself."
But no one ever thought she would actually follow through on her seemingly hair brained idea. "She was known for announcing big plans, big things she was going to do, but none of them ever happened," a friend told me. Anyone remember the time she wanted to work at Macy's after seeing Miracle of 34th Street?
What made the adoption of Ava so different from all her other pipe dreams? That would be her Aunt Libet.
Libet, with whom Casey always had a difficult relationship, founded a Cambodian orphanage. It was this that first put the idea into Casey's head. And in what can only be described as a battle of one-upsmanship, Casey decided she was going to get a baby from Aunt Libet's orphanage, too. So you can imagine what happened when her request was mysteriously denied.
Furious that anyone would ever say 'no' to her, probably the first and last time she ever heard that word, Casey was convinced Aunt Libet was behind the rejection after they got into a twisted feud following her aunt's decision to sleep with Casey's then boyfriend, John Dee.
That's when Casey turned to Kazakhstan and found Ava. At first she wanted to be the best parent she could be, saying, "It was probably the best day of my life, to see her photos. I mean, I was hysterically crying, you know, out of joy." But she couldn't resist adding a dig at her family, claiming she would not raise Ava the way that she herself was raised (which presumably means spoiling her rotten.)
Unfortunately like so many other things in her life, Casey eventually lost interest in her daughter, and her behavior became more and more erratic. Ava fell into the custody of her grandmother, Sale Johnson, in New York, while Casey continued to tear up Los Angeles.
Let's hope Sale listens to her late daughter's words and raises the little girl now in her arms much different than the way she raised Casey.