Friday 21 June 2019

The money should go to charity

and I hope it does.
I am not a party to the action in the Supreme Court so I won't get my say there but I have something I want to say.
The Senior Cat's cousin was a good man, a generous man, a kind man, a gentle man and a gentleman. He would be appalled by what is now happening.
D....made money, rather a lot of money out of a building system. He was an engineer and he invented and developed the system. In the beginning he had no money. His "office" was a public telephone box. He worked hard and he worked very long hours.
It was the thing that kept him going when the one true love of his life, M..., died of an inoperable brain tumour. M... was one of those lovely people who was missed by many but most of all by D... as they had no children.
It took many years before he met another woman. H.... was a divorcee who lived in another state. Perhaps that should have been a warning sign. She moved to this state to be closer to him. He took an interest in her children. One of the reasons for moving in fact was so that he could help one of her children get into university - the marks needed being lower here than interstate. He gave financial assistance too.
Over the years D... and H... went out together in the way older people do. They stayed over at one another's homes and were invited to birthdays and other occasions. D..., a lover of the sea, liked to go on cruises. It was not for the party life on board but for the destinations, the pleasure of simply being at sea and - perhaps - with H... when she went with him. He paid. 
But she would not marry him. She was asked. D... told me this himself. The relationship didn't die instantly. D... was not that sort of person. He would still be caring and polite. But the relationship did die.
At about that time D....'s SIL had to move into a nursing home. D... saw more of her sister.  They would share a coffee after visiting F... and he had some casual meals with P....in her home. The friendship developed to the point where they would occasionally go to an event together, especially if D... needed a partner.
D....donated money to the hospitals in this state, a lot of money. P... would go with him - and heap praise on him for doing it. He asked her to go on a trip with him as he no longer wanted to travel alone.
"I'll pay," he told her.
"No, I'll pay for myself," was her reply, "I can afford it. I'm comfortable."
And they went - on those terms.
Shortly before he died D.... talked to me about changing his will. He had left the bulk of his estate to charity but H....still featured in it, as did her family.
     "I don't want them to have anything," he told me.
We discussed how he might change it. I advised him he might be well advised to leave some recognition to H.... but there was no need to acknowledge her now adult children. 
A little over a week later, before he had made any changes, he was dead. It was sudden and completely unexpected.
We were not aware of the provisions of his will, just that the bulk of it was intended for a range of charities. Yes, H.... was mentioned, as were her children.
Now, two years down the track, we have been shocked by a piece in the paper. H.... is taking action against the charities for a larger slice.  P... has been named as "the other woman" - a completely ridiculous assertion. 
Yes, there were warning signs now that I think about it. H... pounced when he died. She arranged a memorial service that no member of his family was able to attend. Her son-in-law, K..., phoned me in a fury about the obituary in the paper - H.... had not been mentioned. Even when I explained I had nothing to do with it - apart from answering some questions put to me by the journalist responsible - he was angry.  H... was everything to D....and adored him. They were his family.  H...'s daughter wrote a letter to me that positively spat the words out she was so furious.
K... was an executor of the will - the will written years before when everything was rosy and D... expected he would be marrying H.... and wanted to do what he saw as the right thing. They would have known the contents by then - and believed that, despite being mentioned, they were not getting enough.
They deserve nothing. They lived off D...'s generosity for years. His own blood relatives get nothing. They are not even mentioned in the will - at their own request.  They wanted the money to go to the charities he named. 
H...is claiming a "moral right". I see none and his surviving nephews see none. The matter is supposed to go to "mediation" and then back to the Supreme Court (which deals with matters of probate). I can't be involved because I am not a party to the action. I wish I could be.
I want the charities to have that money - and so does his family.
 

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