I had a great aunt on my Mom's side who was the quintessential spinster. She took care of parents most of her adult life while having a career as an accountant with a small local cartage firm.
She was the best of my aunts and uncles while I was growing up, as she was really sincere about being interested in what you were doing as a kid. We rarely saw her, as she kept odd hours, so a lot of the family sort of dismissed her as an oddball. She would always show up for family gatherings several hours late, so everyone got into the habit of telling her stuff was starting earlier than planned so she would show up on time. She lived in the same apartment building as my grandmother and her sister, in fact, she was at the opposite end of the hall from their apartment. Whenever we visited my grandmother and great aunt, which was pretty often, we always went down the hall to see Aunt Marge. I know (now) that a lot of times we rousted her out, but you wouldn't know it. She was always glad to see us kids, and we always had fun with her, even if the visit was just a few minutes. Anyway, she and my Mom were really close, as they were both semi-professional bowlers before my Mom married my Dad. They traveled around the Midwest on occasion and bowled in tournaments together. Our family stayed close to her over the years when everyone else didn't bother as they didn't want to deal with her flakyness. One day Mom got a call that Aunt Marge had been in a car accident and was hospitalized. She went to see her and was told they thought she had a stroke while she was driving. Within a few days they figured out that she had a large mass on her brain that was inoperable. As a result of this, she had lost her ability to speak and wasn't too good physically, so she was placed in a care facility. Mom took care of her, visiting every day for almost two years before Aunt Marge passed. Mom was taking care of all of her personal business as well, since she was obviously unable to do so. Mom was the executrix of her estate and she probated the will, which left everything to her. This was not known by my Mom, I would add. It was the summer and I was in middle school. I helped Mom inventory and pack the contents of Aunt Marge's apartment. It was amazing. She had coffee cans full of silver coins. I don't recall how many, suffice to say that we had to get a bunch of cloth coin bags from the bank and use a two wheel dolly to move them out. We found bundles of War bonds stuffed in the drawers of her desk. These were not "H" series bonds that mature at their face value, but bonds that continued to earn interest. Some of them were worth 5X-10X their face value as a result. It was staggering. I don't know the value of it all, but I'm sure it was in the low six figures. Now the fun begins. Aunt Marge had an estranged brother, my uncle Cliff, who made a lot of money in the local cartage business and had his own trucking company. We're talking about someone who had a home in Florida and wintered there 4-5 months out of the year in the 1950s (this was the mid 1970s). Cliff hadn't seen his sister in years as far as we know. I don't know the reason for the estrangement, but it was serious and went back a long way from what I was told. Cliff contested the will. He wasn't named in it, of course. Everything was left to my Mom. Two years later, after a protracted legal battle the drained a lot of money out of her estate, Cliff settled for a $1500 life insurance payout that he had been the beneficiary for years prior that she had later changed to my Mom. Bastard. And all for $1500. I know he spent far more than that in attorney's fees. Dan Sent from my iPad > On Dec 1, 2015, at 10:03 AM, Meade Dillon via Mercedes > <mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: > > Years ago I heard a lawyer / author interviewed on the radio about two > books that he'd written on wills and estates and family fights. I wish I > could recall his name and the books titles. The first book is for the > person to read BEFORE they die, so they can (maybe) arrange their matters > so as to prevent family squabbling and try to drive home the value of > people/relationships over material stuff. The second book is for the > family to read AFTER the death, so as to understand what the options are > and how badly things can go wrong, basically just a bunch of stories about > how horrible family can be and all the stupid things and hurtful things > people do when fighting over stuff. I am planning to get both books for my > parents. > > ------------- > Max > Charleston SC > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
