I Can’t Accept It
Granny was a sweet old lady, relatively healthy but had some trouble getting around and taking care of herself. Her family was the typical greedy and money-hungry scenario, only calling when they wanted something. They stuck her in a nursing home and moved far away.
To everyone’s knowledge, Granny had very little money, but she still owned her property; a small house her best friend (my great aunt) took care of, and her car—a customized classic VW Bug.
The nursing home had volunteers, people to come and talk to the residents, play board games with them, basically keep them occupied. Granny’s favorite was a newer volunteer, a 19-year-old girl whom I’ll refer to as V.
I only met her a handful of times, but V was a very soft-spoken and kind girl. V was the only volunteer Granny liked, because they had many things in common, one of those things being their mutual love for a specific kind of car...hint hint.
Over the next year and a half, V continued to volunteer about twice a week. Soon, Granny started to get sick, her health started to rapidly decline. Did her family come to see her? Nope. Until her last days, she only had V and my great aunt. Granny passed.
Some of her family came to the funeral, but pretty much everyone only cared about the will. My great aunt said that the only ones who seemed sad at the funeral were herself, V, and a few of Granny’s old friends. When it came time to read the will, there was a big shock.
It turned out Granny had a decent amount of money stashed away—about $100,000. The family was in the dark, only my great aunt knew about it. A very small amount of that was split up and given to select family members. But the rest was divided and given to my great aunt and V. V was in complete shock.
The family was mad. A few other things were given to family, select items that didn’t hold a whole lot of value. But it was about to get worse. The car I mentioned earlier, the classic VW Bug? Granny’s teenage granddaughter had her eyes on that car since Granny was put in the nursing home!
Everyone expected her to get it once Granny passed. That didn’t happen. Granny left it to V. If the family was mad about the money, they were FURIOUS about this car. Poor V cried her eyes out and said she had to leave the room.
She told my great aunt, “I can’t accept it. I’m not family, that car should be yours.” And my great aunt spent over an hour and a half convincing her that Granny wanted her to have it.
Some family members followed V outside and started screaming at her, threatening to sue her, claiming it was part of a “plan” that V must have created (What? Befriend a lonely old woman and take her fortune?), telling her she didn’t deserve any of what she got, and calling her awful things.
One of the calmer relatives got things settled down and my great aunt got V out of there. It’s been a few years. My great aunt and V still talk, and V still has Granny’s bug. As far as I know, after the reading of the will was over V got a lot of nasty messages online but was otherwise fine.
One of the family members did contact a lawyer but they must have told them there was nothing that could be done since V never actually got sued or anything.