WASHINGTON – It's the quirky Christmases Catherine Falk remembers the most.

"To us, he wasn't 'Columbo.' He was dad," she told FoxNews.com of her famous father Peter Falk.

"He wasn't in character. He was the character. He was genuinely this bumbling, goofy, absent-minded guy who was so funny and loved his family," Catherine Falk, remembered with a laugh. "We'd give him these Christmas presents and he'd put them in his trunk and forget about them. Then the next Christmas would come around and he'd open the trunk of his Mercedes and there they'd be, all the present from last year."

The all-around funny family man would go on to create many happy memories with those closest to him. But when he got sick, things got complicated. His children accused his wife of alienating him. They said they weren't allowed to talk to see him and were denied any information about his health. It's a case that's being played out in thousands of households in America.

Across the country, there's been a sharp rise in adult children being denied access to their ailing parents. Several states are starting to take notice and moving forward with legislation that would open up visitation rights to children.

In Falk’s case, she and her stepmother, Shera Denise Falk, were locked in a nasty court battle over conservatorship and access to the elder Falk for years