Gosport woman fights to see her great-grandson. Indiana says she has no right to

GOSPORT − When her great-grandson was born on July 3, 2015, Mary Craft was delighted. She involved herself in the baby's life, and he'd stay with her and her husband on weekends.

It was toddling around their living room where little Tyler learned to walk. "I'm the only one that's always been in his life," the 79-year-old Gosport woman said. "I'm his favorite person. He's told me that."

But it's been awhile since Craft has seen the boy she watched over and helped raise. "I've been with him since he was born. I was right there. When that boy sees me, he lights up."

Circumstances took him away

Caught up in the courts, her great-grandson has been placed in a northern Indiana foster home. His dad is facing felony criminal charges unrelated to the child. His mother was killed in a 2022 car crash. And his paternal grandparents, appointed his guardians in 2019, severed their guardianship and gave up custody last year.

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Since then, Craft has been trying to find a way to see or contact the child. She worries about him thinking she's abandoned him, since she never visits, calls or writes — because she's not allowed to.

Last fall, 79-year-old Craft passed the background check and drug test required by the Department of Child Services as part of the process she said was required to visit Tyler. She prayed for the possibility of a reunion.

"I did all of that, and they said I should be able to see him," Craft said. "I called the office every three or four days, saying I wanted to see him. They said they were looking into it. Then they took him away."

Visit 'not going to happen'

She last saw Tyler during an hour-long visit in October 2022, before he went to live with a foster family in Scottsburg. Since then, he's moved in with another family in Merrillville, 180 miles and a three-hour drive from Gosport.

"I've not been allowed to see him," Craft said in a January letter written "To whom it may concern" at the Monroe County Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) office in Bloomington. Like many children whose family circumstances land them in the court system, Craft's great-grandson had a CASA advocating for his best interests.

"I am almost 80 years old and not able to keep Tyler for extensive periods of time," Craft wrote. "However, I want to be in this precious child's life."

Craft included her address and phone number. She heard back from a woman who visited her Gosport home and stayed an hour as Craft presented her case and described her concerns for the boy.

"I told her Tyler hadn't done anything wrong, and now he's being punished by being kept away from me," Craft said.

When she asked about taking the boy out for an afternoon, "the lady said, 'I can tell you right now that's not going to happen.' I just want DCS to bring him where I can visit and hold him close and tell him how much I love him."

She didn't hear back.

Neither CASA nor DCS comment on specific cases. "Indiana confidentiality laws prohibit us from commenting on DCS involvement with a family," said Abbey Venable, external communications coordinator for the agency. So there's no one to ask about details of this case.

Law denies great-grandparent visits

Craft worries her great-grandson believes his extended family has abandoned him. "He probably thinks that I don't want him, either." Her son is allowed a weekly video call, but Craft said she can't be included.

On July 8, Craft penned another handwritten letter. She accused the state of using her age as a reason to keep her from the child. It's not right, she said, despite the legal interpretation of the law.

A 2002 case challenged the interpretation of the Indiana Grandparent Visitation Statute that excludes great-grandparents. In Hammons v. Jenkins-Griffith, the Indiana Court of Appeals decided not to expand the definition of “grandparents” to include great-grandparents.

In that case, visitation rights were denied to great-grandparents who were legal custodians of a child for more than a year. The court "stated that it was not without sympathy for great-grandparents, but was bound by the plain language of the statute," according to a 2021 legal analysis from the Children's Law Center of Indiana.

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Craft missed Tyler's eighth birthday earlier this month, but don't think he wasn't on her mind, morning till night. Had they been together, there would have been a birthday lunch at Culver's, his favorite place to eat, then a trip to the playground at Bloomington's Cascades Park.

That's all she's asking for, time with Tyler. "I just love that little boy. My blood runs in his veins. I can't hardly stand worrying about him."

She wonders if she'll ever see him again.

"My great-grandson cannot imagine why the grandmother he loves so much is no longer in his life," she wrote in her most recent letter to the DCS. "I will never give up my fight to have him in my life as always."

Contact Herald-Times reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Indiana denies great-grandparents visitation rights