Questionable Inheritance

A bunch of us were down at the coffee shop the other day when the subject turned to someone’s cousin’s friend’s stepdaughter who had just inherited a good bit of money. Evidently the girl’s uncle had passed away in Alabama. The man had never married and he didn’t have any kids of his own, so he had left this young college student everything he had. Several people suggested that the money would ruin her. Other people joked that those folks were just jealous. I don’t know who was right, but the stories that came out of the discussion sure were a lot of fun.

Everyone was talking about inheriting this and that from their families, smaller things like furniture pieces and modest jewelry when my friend, who will remain nameless today, took off on a rant.

“I never got anything from my grandparents,” she said. “They had a lot of money, too, and they loved us— but they didn’t want us kids to be soft. At least that’s what my granddaddy liked to say. Personally, I think they were just stingy. I never got one single thing from either of them,” she repeated.

“But, wait,” I said, “I thought you said that watch you’re wearing used to be your grandmother’s.”

“Oh, you mean this?” my friend held her left arm up so everyone would see the diamond watch on her wrist. “Yeah, it was my grandmother’s.”

“Well, then,” I said. “You can’t say she didn’t give you anything.”
“She didn’t give it to me,” my friend grumbled. “I bought it from her.”
I was sort of at a loss at that point. “Well, that’s not necessarily bad,” I said weakly.
“I hope you got a good price at least.”

“Not really,” my friend said, firmly. “I’m telling you the woman drove a hard bargain—
even from her deathbed.”

~Shellie