Inheritance

I've been thinking a lot about the subject lately.  a former family member is constantly berating another about doing what they demand or "you won't get your inheritance"  This person is totally clueless about the fact that the person they are "threatening" has zero interest in what money may be left over.  They have figured out that there probably won't be much left and whatever the money, it is not worth their soul.  I have watched this former family member sell off their own dreams to dance to the tune of the parent who has the money and has forced them into an ill-fitting mold.  To say that this person is unhappy, with all the trappings of success, is an understatement.

It makes me glad my great-grandfather, "Good Time Charlie" Myers, blew his portion of the family fortune, reportedly on "wine women and song'   I hope he had fun with it.  His son, my grandfather Robert, had even less desire for inheritance.  There's a family story that his was displeasing his great-aunt, who had pots of money.  She told him "I'm going to cut you out of my will"  He replied "Good.  I've been sitting up nights, trying to figure out what I'm going to do with those two bags of horseshit you're going to leave me." 

When my mother died, this money-loving former family member DEMANDED to know ( as if it were any of their business) just WHAT my mother had left me.  I gently pointed out that my FATHER was still alive.  She sniffed and said that there is ALWAYS something left. 

The thought rankled me then as it does now, so I have been thinking about it. Just what DID my mother leave me?

I inherited her maternal instincts. Come to my house and I will become my mother, offering you food and drink and kissing you on the cheek.  I am, as most people who know me will tell you, a mother to everyone.  At work, the people I work with are all my kids.  I care, probably far too much, how things are going.  I can't help it.  It is who I am and I got that from her. 

I wish I had gotten the math skills, but noooooo

She was a better housekeeper than me, but I always say my house is clean enough to be healthy and messy enough to be happy. 

If I am half the woman she was, I am lucky.


Since we are talking inheritance, I am thinking about what I got from my Dad.  I got his cooking gene, for sure.  I got his hands, square fingers and a bit of his sense of humor.  He encouraged me to be fearless in the kitchen, to start with good food and you will probably get something good.  Otherwise, he would assure me with a wink "there's always pizza"

I wish I had his dancing skills, my two left feet are a disaster on the dance floor, but I have fun.

My parents left me a memory of love, loving me and my sister and loving each other.  They left me the bond of family and a faith that tough times don't last but tough people do.  Money comes, money goes.  It's who you are through it all that counts the most. 

That's my "inheritance"