Greed

When I was eight years old my grandmother died. That is when I got my first glimpse into the greed of families over possessions. It was so awful that I still remember how upset my mother was with her money grubbing sister. Later in life when my great aunt was getting on in years she had the fore thought to have the family come in, those that were to inherit, to choose the items that they wanted or to draw straws if they all chose the same thing. Unfortunately when she died all the preparation was for naught because the same money grubbing sister, who was not included in the will, forced her way into the house and caused yet another scene with her greediness. My mother’s older sister died leaving all of her possessions to friends in her home state of California. They wrote to my mother and her other sister offering to share. My mother told them she would honor the will the way it was written but, you guessed it, the money grubbing sister caused all sorts of trouble but to no avail. She too has since died and I often wonder if her three children fought over her possessions as well. My father died in 1996 leaving equal shares to my mother and to me. My half brother tried to contest the will thinking he should inherit as well never considering that my father had paid for his three children to go to private school and had also provided him with an income. It made me sick then, it makes me sick now when greed takes over after someone dies. Now we have our own local soap operas to follow. The squabbling of the Brown children and the wife/companion and the recent death of Dr. Norwood. The vultures could not even wait until after the funeral to start circling his spot in politics. With Anna Nichol Smith’s death it is even more disgusting on a larger scale. Fighting over a 5 month old child, not for the welfare of the child but for what ever that child may inherit. While I do not believe that someone actually broke into the home and took all that was reported stolen, it would not surprise me to see it show up on Ebay one day soon. Greed is a horrible, horrible thing to witness but having said that I sometimes wonder if that is how people get ahead, being greedy? Is greed disguised as ambition? Is that why most of us who are happy just to pay our bills or have a decent place to live never get ahead? Are we not greedy enough? All I know is that I am glad that I have nothing to fight over and no one that would if I did.