Where There's a Will by Eden Monroe

 

 

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 Drawing up your last will and testament is a considerate thing to do for the loved ones you leave behind, relieving them of the stress, work, and cost of seeing to the legal distribution of your estate should you die without the proper documentation in place.

Having your will prepared is pretty straightforward, although it can sometimes be difficult to decide exactly who gets what. Sometimes testators have more than one go at it, updating their will to reflect a new circumstance in their life, or as is often the case, taking into consideration who has most recently angered or disappointed them, and making changes accordingly.

Some choose to be creative, setting out unusual bequests in their will, which may or may not be easy to honour, although most formal instructions are made with the best of intentions. Nevertheless whether acting out of malice or kindness, lives can indeed be changed with surprises found in a will, and Aunt Feenie’s will in Dare To Inherit certainly accomplished that. The biggest surprise for her beneficiaries was that she had millions of dollars squirreled away, but her conditions for inheritance were perhaps the most shocking of all. And in true Aunt Feenie style, her wishes were made known by way of a pre-taped video:

         “I know you girls always thought I was unnecessarily harsh with you, so why should anything change now? So here’s the catch,” she said, her lips pulled back in an off-putting Cheshire cat smile. “Both of you must do exactly as I say, and the money is yours. Don’t, and you’ll continue to struggle.”

Good intentions aside, some very famous wills have bordered on the ridiculous, especially when there was no love lost between the deceased and their beneficiaries. A husband in one such will in 1856 left his entire estate to his wife, stipulating that she must remarry in order to inherit because he wanted “at least one man to regret my death.”

And speaking of unusual bequests, how about the Portuguese aristocrat who left his wealth to seventy strangers picked at random from the Lisbon telephone directory? The terms of the will were followed, and those seventy lucky people stood to be made wealthy from someone they had never met. If ever there was a phone call you’d like to receive….

Mrs. William Shakespeare, Anne Hathaway, was left her husband’s “second-best bed” when he died, while their daughter, Susanna, fared much better in the will.

Billionaire hotelier, Leona Helmsley, sometimes called the “Queen of Mean”, left most of her fortune to her dog, Trouble, who was eventually laid to rest by her side in the family mausoleum. However, a judge later decided that Two million dollars was enough to maintain a lavish lifestyle for the tiny white Maltese, instead of the Twelve million dollars originally left to him in the will.

Chemist Fred Baur created the Pringles potato chips can and stacking method, and his will specified that he was to be cremated and packaged, just like his potato chips, before being buried. His interment wishes were honoured; part of his ashes placed in a Pringles container, the remainder in urns.

Among the bequests in Napoleon Bonaparte’s last will and testament was that his head be shaved post-mortem, and his hair given to family and friends. No record exists however as to whether his executor did as Napoleon had asked.

Not everyone can make peace with what’s been set out in a will and indeed wills can be successfully challenged, although it can be a lengthy and expensive proposition to do so. It all depends how important it is to go that route, in other words, what’s up for grabs? Like any litigation, proceedings could be hostile, and an outrageous will can create enemies, and at the very least, cause fierce opposition among the beneficiaries. Most often it is directed against the deceased.

In Dare To Inherit, Aunt Feenie, was immovable:

“’Now I’ve said my piece. Jocelyn and Chloe, the clock is ticking. Do as I ask, both of you, if you want to be independently wealthy. If you fail, the money will be left to my church. Willow, the best of luck to you my dear, both now and in the future - with your wonderful husband,” she finished acidly.’”

At the end of the day the deceased can attempt to correct real or imagined wrongs in this life by way of their last will and testament, but because some wills can indeed be declared invalid, a letter of wishes might be an alternative, although while that document can be taken into account and used as guidance, and in practice is usually followed, it is non-legally binding unless it is actually part of the will. In other cases, the deceased’s wishes are very happily complied with, such as one of the terms of Jack Benny’s will.

“Every day since Jack has gone the florist has delivered one long-stemmed red rose to my home,” his widow Mary Livingstone wrote in a magazine, shortly after the beloved comedian’s death. “I learned Jack actually had included a provision for the flowers in his will. One red rose to be delivered to me every day for the rest of my life.”

 

Sources: willful.co; theguardian.com; ranker.com