Monday, April 10, 2006

SOLOMON'S DECISION

Never Never Never volunteer to be the executor of your parents' estate ESPECIALY if there’s not an existing will! You can never satisfy everyone no matter how hard you try. You're responsible for all the financial aspects of the deal like lawyer’s fees and court costs that have to be paid up front. All this means that no matter what you do, you're the referee and all decisions are wrong, plus your checkbook gets a hefty workout.

I've been back and forth between family pow-wows, lawyer's offices, surveyor's offices and we're just getting started. Some (one in particular) want nothing but money of which there is none, and others want land which has to be surveyed and divided. But how to divide it? There are 80 acres with limited road frontage and two houses to be divided between 5 of us.

Actually, so far we've done fairly well. No one has pulled anyone else's hair out and the name calling hasn’t started yet. We all want to be fair (at least the majority of us do), but there’s no way to do this without someone getting a few dollars worth more than someone else. Greed is an ugly emotion and I'm scared to death that this will wreck our family. When was the last time that YOU saw 5 women agree on anything this big?

Wish us luck and say a little prayer to whatever Deity you favor because it looks like we're going to need all the help we can get.

As you were. Rant over. I feel better now.

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