My grandfather-in-law, Roger, was senile for the last few months of his life. My father had moved from Seattle back to his hometown, Philadelphia, to be around his family and maybe hook up with some old friends and family members.
Instead, he got into an awful situation. His nephew-in-law, Mike, was manager of Roger’s money. Roger obviously belonged in a nursing home, but Mike wouldn’t allow it, so my father was forced to take care of Roger, his father-in-law. This involved cleaning up Roger’s stools and turning him over in bed to prevent him from getting bedsores. Since Mike essentially controlled Roger’s money, he managed to keep my father in a state of misery for a while, dealing with problems that he obviously should not have had to deal with. Eventually, my father did manage to deal with Mike and get Roger into a nursing home. Roger died shortly thereafter; this was just recently.
Roger never really loved my father. He never attempted to be his father, even though he married my paternal grandmother when my father was fourteen. In his will, he left my father no money whatsoever. He left half of the money to his wife, a nonagenarian in a nursing home; the other half went to Louise, my father’s niece. Louise is married to Mike, so Mike has an interest in making sure that Louise keeps the money.
A few things amaze me. First, the immense lack of character that Roger had to have in order to leave my father none of his inheritance. My father has informed me that Louise is slated to get upwards of a million dollars. It is an immense insult that he should give my father none of his seven-figure savings. His wife, who lives in a retirement home, does not even have anything to do with the money he is bequeathing to her.
Second, although Louise recognizes that my father has been dealt an injustice and has stated that she wouldn’t mind splitting her allotment, Mike does not want her to do so, since he’s a greedy asshole who would never do the right thing. He has told my father, regarding the inheritance, “life isn’t fair”. One thing I’ve learned in my short time on Earth: the evil person’s excuse for acting unfairly is “life isn’t fair”, sprinkled with an occasional “it’s not right, it’s just the way it is”.
Third, my paternal grandmother is planning on contesting the will. She almost surely has no case, but the amazing fact is that she is even willing to do such a thing. Her selfishness has survived her ninety years on the planet. What can she do with the money? Nothing. Yet she nevertheless wants all of the money. Half of the money still constitutes seven figures, but she does not even want Louise - an early-middle-aged adult woman with a child and decades ahead of her - to keep any of Roger’s inheritance.
This whole fiasco really has me awestruck.