And So It Goes On...

I thought everything was finished and would be very cut and dried, but when I visited the lawyer on Friday to set up a time to go to probate court (since I am executrix of the will), he encouraged me to file a suit against Anna to get the house. He said that he has handled similar cases and thinks I have a very, very good chance of winning. His point is that Anna always said she would move in with Mary and take care of her, which must have been why Mary put Anna on the deed to the house. Anna never fulfilled this "contract." I, however, did move in and take care of Mary and she even expressed to Anna that she wanted to remove Anna from the deed for the purpose of giving the house to me, thereby making a new "contract" with me, so Anna really has no right to the house--mainly because she never fulfilled her agreement with Mary. If only Mary had been willing to do this when she was alive... but she was afraid Anna would never talk to her again. She shouldn't have cared since Anna very rarely ever talked to her again and 99.99% of the time it was through my urging Mary to call her.

So I will have to pay the lawyer about $3,000 to handle the will. Then I will have to pay him about $8,000 to file the suit. If we win, he said he would take 25% of the value of the house. That seems like a lot. I can understand his thinking that I'll be the 75% richer but... oh, my. I think I'll talk to George, my (no longer Mary's) financial adviser. It may be that Anna wants to have 1/3 of the value of the house, in which case we would not file suit. It may be that she doesn't want to pay to go to court over the issue and so agrees to a settlement of some sort. Or it may be that she wins. But I feel that I should fight because Mary asked her to take her name off the deed and she should have done it then. It's like when the administration at St X High School would say that it wasn't really my decision to give a boy a detention--it was his decision to do the action that required me to give it to him. Anna acted unfairly and this is the appropriate response. Mary hated anyone telling her what to do with her business and I'm going to fight for her. They led her around by the nose and I'm going to say, "No more." This is for Mary.

Fred wants me to call a friend of his who is a lawyer because this man said that my lawyer can't file this suit, that it would be a conflict of interest for him because he was a witness to the will. I never understood how he could be a witness and just trusted him that he could. Was I an idiot then? Oh, how I hate these issues that make your stomach flop and turn inside out! It seems to me that he is simply continuing to represent Mary's interests. Well, my niece said she would check with her lawyer, so I hope she lets me know soon what he says. I'm just glad that my family supports me. I don't want to be thought of as greedy. But I do want to fight for what Mary wanted.

On a completely different note, I now have more time for Mom. I can take her in to the dentist, which is all the way downtown, and go to her doctor's appointments with her--until I start the next phase in my life. I'll also be doing a bit of work for my brother Gus--the one I always did cakes for, and I can still make cakes and earn a bit of money from him. I feel absolutely broke even though I now actually have some money. That doesn't make any sense, I know. I guess it's hard to shake the thoughts and feelings of not having any money. I always said I would travel for a year. I have friends in New Zealand, Germany, Norway, and here in the US to visit as well as family. I've never visited my niece in Maryland or my cousins in Washington State or Wisconsin. Once I start working, I won't be able to do that so easily, so now is really the best time. Then I'll get on with my new life...