I recently found out my grandmother is moving

I recently found out my grandmother is moving. When I tell people this they just nod, but then I tell them it’s to another country and I get some interest. This past weekend my family was informed we needed to go to her house to pick the items we wanted for ourselves since she can’t move all of it with her. Automatically I envision horror stories of families fighting over who gets what and why they deserve it more than anyone else. I have seen this scenario many times in my years of work in this field. Usually I see it more so because someone has passed away and the estate was left in equal shares to those living and so the back and forth of who gets what is initiated along with the comments of “well they would have wanted me to have this” and so forth.

Back to the story…luckily my family gets along pretty well. I’m at the house with three other family members; two did not show up due to prior engagements. The four of us start going through the house for the items my grandmother is trying to get rid of. Of course, along the way my sister and I bump heads a little on who gets the practically new Craftsman tool set or the awesome vintage barware, but we compromise (I love my “new” barware!). Three hours pass and we are exhausted. We went through the whole house, packed everything, and were drained from the 95° weather.

We start our journey back home and I message my other sister about all the cool things I got from my grandma’s house. My sister messages me back with a sad face and tells me how it sounds like I got cool things. I acknowledged it and received more sad faces. Unfortunately, life is such that my grandmother cannot take it all with her. While dividing the assets was difficult, it would have been harder after my grandmother passed away. Emotions were calmer because my grandmother was alive and now my grandmother will know how much I appreciate her assets.

Mary S. Falk, Estate Planning Attorney
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