The simplicity of my day to day. |
Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs; Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth, Let's choose executors and talk of wills” ― William Shakespeare, Richard II Planning for the unknown is never easy but are we ever ready? Do we trust a family member or a friend or a lawyer? How ready are you? Don’t you just love Shakespeare? What a way of saying it’s time to write your will! Wills can be the cause of many a family upset. A few years ago I was executor of my mother-in-laws will. When her husband died a few years earlier he’d expressed in his will that everything was left to his wife but after she died their youngest son was to get everything. Now my husband is the oldest of the five children and neither he nor any of the other three were mentioned, it was as if they’d never existed. Anyway their mother had other ideas and left everything equally between the five of them. Of course the youngest wasn’t happy and said her will wasn’t valid. How horrible it was. Eventually her will was recognised but none of the family now have anything to do with the youngest brother. There should be no such difficulty with our wills. Three kids, equal shares. But there have been so many instances of people I know of who didn’t leave a will and the mess they leave behind because of this can be devastating. The moral of this story is: Make a will people, and pay a lawyer to be executor, that way there’ll be no family squabbles. |