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An interesting story...

By: Decomposed in 6TH POPE | Recommend this post (0)
Thu, 30 Sep 21 1:13 PM | 37 view(s)
Boardmark this board | 6th Edition Pope Board 		Msg. 24596 of 60008
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A few years before I was born, my maternal grandmother threw my grandfather out of their house. He was an alcoholic, probably abusive, and she'd done this repeatedly over the course of their rocky marriage. This time it was for keeps. He contracted cancer. None of his kids would take him in, so my mom - with four children and another on the way - did. They were an Air Force family living on a tiny budget, in a small house, in a different state. It was a major hardship. My mom told me that she tried many times to get her family to take him back... that it was extremely difficult for her to care for him and that he wanted to go home. Her mom and her siblings all refused.

Without anyone's knowledge, my grandfather changed his will and gave a good part of his meager assets (not including his wife's home) to my mom. When he died and everyone found out, they turned on my mother. They no doubt thought that she'd tricked him into writing the will that way... but I think it's pretty clear that he did what he did because everyone else had abandoned him. My mom's feeling was that it was her father's decision and she refused to dishonor his final wish even though it created a terrible situation. My mother's siblings and her own mother disowned her and all the rest of us.

I visited my father's family many times when I was young, but I never met anyone on my mother's side even though they all lived in the same small town.

A few weeks ago, I was notified by a Find-A-Person service presumably hired by Georgia that a cousin I'd never met, a cousin on my mom's side, had died in 2020 leaving no wife, no children, no siblings, no parents, no aunts or uncles, AND NO WILL. Cousins are next in line. I don't know what this cousin of mine was worth or how many cousins he had - except on his father's side. There are nine of those.

Nor do I know what he was worth. I can see from Zillow that he had a very large, beautiful house worth some $700,000. But he may have been in debt up to his ears; I have no way of knowing.

It's an interesting situation. Had he left a will, he obviously wouldn't have left anything to me. Ethically, should I take his money? Of course. He left no will so nobody knows what he would have wanted. His assets would otherwise go to the state. I'm not going to feel guilty about depriving the state of his money. It's no more deserving than I am. So I'll just wait and see how this possible windfall plays out.

There's a lesson here. I'm almost sure of it. Think it over, guys.




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Gold is $1,581/oz today. When it hits $2,000, it will be up 26.5%. Let's see how long that takes. - De 3/11/2013 - ANSWER: 7 Years, 5 Months


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