The last Will and Testament

By Barbara Thomas

Hold up your hands how many reading this now have actually made out a Will

Let me tell you about one specific person who never left a Will and on dying therefore was not able to instruct how he wanted his funeral either burial/cremation Christian or Humanitarian

But the main object of the Will was to find out who was down as his next of kin.

Being a ladies man this man had a chequered past married twice with at least 3 common law wives plus a scattering of lady friends.

You can see the predicament, to whom or who will receive his worldly gifts.

Also without a Will who will pick up the tab?

I’ll help you out, you see it was our son who passed away suddenly.

During his working life he had been on the river Thames as a waterman worked at a timber mill, as a bus driver, taxi driver,

And manager at both his father and aunt’s pubs.

At the time of his untimely death he had been working with mentally ill patients in a residential setting near where he lived with a girlfriend in Catford, South London. 

Unfortunately, he had been found outside his workplace unconscious, and died still in a coma 3 days later. He had suffered a massive heart attack and because he wasn’t found for one hour he received severe and irreversible brain damage and the life machine was switched off by two of his four children on July 2nd 2021.

Heartbroken my husband and I tried to make sense of it all as he was only 58 years old.

Then reality set in. Who was going to pay for the funeral, as we now know there was no Will.

It fell on both my husband and I to contact solicitors and ask for advice

As I mentioned our Steve loved the ladies but where was the second wife and had they divorced?

The current ladyfriend made big ripples, I had to freeze all his bank and credit cards as at first she was having a great time spending

We were advised to become Executors,

giving us the authority to look into any life insurances Steve may have had. I texted, phoned emailed determined to collect some monies somehow.

There were papers galore I had to collate including Bank statements to check, the list goes on.

We had some luck when a family member remembered where the last wife used to live, we followed the lead and it turned out that this wife had never moved out of the home she had shared with our son and they had never divorced, apparently she told us Steve used to often visit her.

So now we have next of kin, who legally could claim anything she liked only she didn’t want to be involved. They had only been married 1 year before they parted

More problems once we had contacted her we were then only errand boys.

Our hands were tied so we went back to the solicitors and paid another £1,000 for Deed of variation to allow us to intervene for the reluctant next of Kin. 

Then came the funeral, his harem all wanted a piece of him, there was a lot of bad feeling, especially from Steve’s latest lady friend

I put my foot down and said as his parents we would be picking up the tab and the funeral would not become a circus but a celebration of a life gone before his time. 

The funeral went as well as could be expected some even said it was lovely with all the funny anecdotes that Steve got up to plus all the tunes we knew he loved especially at the end “I’m for ever blowing bubbles” he would have loved that being an ardent West Ham supporter all his life like his Dad and Grandad before him. 

The wake was interesting to say the least women eyeballing each other. Oh Steve we had no idea you were such a ladies man. 

I discovered a life insurance “hurrah“ followed by monies from his days as a bus driver. 

Now the monies at last was coming in the outstanding bills were being paid out. Alas not much savings for all those years of working hard, Steve lived for the day. There were credit agreements although sadly did not die at his demise.

It’s ok getting a credit agreement but you never know how your circumstances will be over a length of time and this is what we had to cope with.

A Will would have saved us the stress that we went through at that period.

 

So my message to all you people what ever walk of life please find out about making a Will.

Find time otherwise it may fall on your loved one’s shoulders. 

Apparently I am told you do not have to go to a solicitor as long it is signed witnessed-and dated.

Leave getting a Will at your peril!! 

Copyright Barbara Thomas