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Today’s topic is a morbid one: inheritances. Over the summer, I read an article in USA Today about the “Giving While Living” phenomenon. Apparently, people aren’t waiting to die to give away their stuff. Though nobody’s giving any of it to me – and our office could use some knickknacks. (The whiteboard looks lonely on the floor.)
Have you or your friends ever inherited anything worth talking about? I don’t just mean lots of money (but feel free to brag) – I’d rather hear about the quirkier stuff, like Desert Storm trading cards or Confederate textbooks.
Before we get this party started, a few notable wills, from Money.AOL.com:
• “Economist Jeremy Bentham left a large fortune to the University College in London on condition that his preserved corpse annually “attend” the board of directors’ meetings. For many years he was recorded as ‘present but not voting.’”
• “Playwright George Bernard Shaw bequeathed millions to whomever could come up with a better alphabet. He insisted it have at least 40 ‘letters’ that could be used to write the English language without the oddities we deal with thanks to the 26-letter alphabet.”
• “Ruth Lilly, an amateur poet and billionaire heiress, bequeathed $100 million to an ailing poetry magazine that repeatedly rejected her work. The 87-year-old submitted her poems in the 1970s to Poetry, the Chicago literary monthly. The editor thought them unsuitable for publication and returned them with a handwritten note.”
• “Lawyer Charles Millar willed most of his $1 million fortune to the woman who produced the most babies in Toronto, within 10 years following his death. But his mischievous didn’t stop there. Millar bequeathed shares in a jockey club to two men who were well-known for their opposition to racetrack betting, and left shares in a brewery to every Protestant minister in Toronto.”
Get mingling…
Comments (17)
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My parents-in-law gave away most of their stuff when they moved to Florida. My mom has also passed on some heirlooms. We now own:
1. A chair that came West from Pennsylvania on a covered wagon.
2. A pew from the first Methodist church ever built in Minnesota.
3. A plate from Lidice, a city that no longer exists. It used to be in the Czech Republic (Bohemia) and was wiped out by the Nazis during WWII.
4. Spectacularly old books, including first editions of Dickens.
posted by Lori L. on 10-12-2007 at 10:28 am
Never been mentioned in a will.
But I did get a kick out of the part in Shakespeares’ will when he left his wife his “second best bed” (or words to that effect). :-)
posted by Sheldon Siegel on 10-12-2007 at 10:54 am
My wife was bequeathed a “cranberry scoop” in her Dad’s will.
posted by peterg on 10-12-2007 at 11:06 am
I hope getting a picture of an alligator wearing a Santa hat was truly worth the lives of three friends. My grandfather always insisted it had been well worth it. I received the photo from him when he died.
posted by Jeremiah on 10-12-2007 at 11:36 am
My grandparents travelled extensively for my grandfather’s work. My grandmother started a charm bracelet for me and it was filled with charms from exotic places. I insisted in 6th grade on wearing it to school and swore to my mother I wouldn’t lose it, but of course I did. Grandma started a second charm bracelet for me, but I always felt bad about the lost one that was irreplaceable.
When Grandma passed on, my mom asked me if I’d like her charm bracelet. I was thrilled to have it and once I got to look at it carefully, I was in tears. Every charm Grandma bought for me, she bought herself the same one. It’s as if my lost bracelet has been returned.
If you’re wondering, it’s framed in a shadow box. I’m not going to lose those charms twice!
posted by Richel on 10-12-2007 at 11:45 am
My father has a Beer Can collection, in one room of his house he has shelves covering all his walls with UNIQUE beer cans. By brother and I fight over who has to take it when he dies.
posted by Witty Nickname on 10-12-2007 at 11:51 am
Two things of note:
My grandma recently died, and I got her books. All my life, I’ve heard “When I die, Jenny gets my books. Nobody can touch them until she decides what she wants.” And now that they’re mine and I’ve been looking at them, I’m floored. Several first editions, books going back to the 1850s, some very valuable japanese watercolors. I feel very honored to be the recipient of the books.
My dad recently gave me a bed that’s been in the family for over 200 years. It’s huge, ancient, and wonderful. I’ve also got the original reciept, showing that the bed was purchased for $5. I love sleeping on it and knowing that it’s been so prized in my family for so long. When my father no longer uses it, I’ll also get the dresser that goes with the bed.
posted by Jenny on 10-12-2007 at 11:52 am
From my mother’s side of the family we have original portraits of several of my ancestors, including a Confederate soldier who died later in a POW camp. Then from my grandmother there’s a collection of Shawnee corn-queen pottery, and a large collection of antique rolling pins.
posted by scoobnut on 10-12-2007 at 11:53 am
My grandfather died last January and wasn’t a very educated man so there weren’t many books other than a his childhood Bible. The major find though was a Stradivarius violin! We couldn’t believe it. We have no idea how he came into possession of it. He didn’t even have insurance on it. We don’t think he knew what it was or just how valuable it is.
posted by Louise on 10-12-2007 at 1:27 pm
…Hey Witty Nickname – I’ll gladly take your Dad’s unique Beer Cans. I cannot believe you and your brother dont want them!!!
posted by FRO Majors on 10-12-2007 at 1:41 pm
I inherited my family’s alcoholism.
posted by The Black Spy on 10-12-2007 at 2:20 pm
Interesting stuff! Lori brings up Lidice, which is a very sad story. On an upnote, it was rebuilt after the war and exists today (along with the memory of those lost).
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidice
The massacre of the village residents after the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich (a seriously bad S.O.B. taken out by the Czech resistance with British help) is very famous and the British propaganda poster on the wiki site shows what a rallying point it became.
Anyhow, thanks for sharing the information…
posted by Sid Morrison on 10-12-2007 at 3:39 pm
My Gramma’s grandfather gave her a rattle snake skin that she gave my dad and I now have. It’s about 60 years old. We have the rattler too. It’s about 4 feet long.
posted by Lea on 10-12-2007 at 5:59 pm
My grandmother decided to give me (some of) my inheritance, while she could see me use it, by paying for a more reliable, safer car than my `78 Buick LeSabre. She gave me $5,000 for a used Toyota. When she died in `02 I inherited her `89 Ford Tempo and a cat named Smokey. I got rid of the Tempo last year. Smokey’s my little buddy, she’s sitting here watching me type.
My mom and her brother(jack ass) fought over everything else.
posted by Tdave on 10-13-2007 at 12:04 am
i inherited one of those collector’s plates with annie and her dog on it from my great-grandmother.
i don’t know if it’s actually worth anything or what the damn point is, but it’s nice to know i have somethign to remember my grandma by. lol
i just thought it was nice that all the love i showed her came back to me, because my brother and sister acted like asses and were rude to her (and everyone else) and didn’t get bupkis.
posted by Sue on 10-13-2007 at 3:16 pm
Sheldon Siegel, about Shakespear’s “second best bed”. It does sound funny to modern ears, but it was probably a very sentimental thing to bequeath. In households of the time, the “best” bed was saved for important guests, whereas the second-best bed was probably that which Will shared with his Mrs. (When he was home, that is.)
Louise, have that Stradivarius examined by a reputable appraiser before you get too excited. There are a LOT of fakes out there, some of which are so well made that it takes an expert to tell the difference.
posted by bibli0phile on 10-13-2007 at 7:19 pm
My brother and I inherited about 15k each. He was 17 and i was 13. It came from a dead great aunt we had never met.
Unfortunately since i was a minor the money was put under the jurisdiction of my financially irresponsible guardian. She figured that a good use for the money would be cruises, camping trips and private schooling which i would eventually drop out of.
My brother on the other hand was given full control of his money. He bought a hald dozen fire arms and a old piece of s*** Chevy Bel Air which did nothing but get parking tickets he did not pay. Eventually a warrant was issued… took the rest of his money to get out of that mess.
posted by Jared Probst on 10-15-2007 at 1:52 pm