As if losing a loved one isn’t terrible enough, the last thing you want to do after losing a loved one is become embroiled in a family spat over inheritance. Read the story to know what happened between this family when the father died and let us know what the daughter should do.
Source: Reddit
I’m 29F. I’m one of five children. (32, 25, 24, 21)
When I was nine my father got into a bad accident, which left him wheelchair bound and needing around the clock care at first. Months later my mother picked up and left my father for another man.
Fortunately, my grandparents were able to step in and took over my father’s care while caring for my siblings and me. I was eleven when they divorced. My mother came back for my siblings and I, but I refused to leave. It’s not like she fell off the face of the Earth. She would call, visit, and was still there if we needed something.
I, on the other hand, resented my mother. Life got hard for her, and she ran like a coward. Anyhow my siblings went to live with her, I did not. Often, I would visit but my resentment became too much especially when she became pregnant with the other man’s child. They got married and moved away, basically ceasing contact. I heard from her on some holidays and birthdays. That’s about it. I was sixteen when I learned she’d asked my father to relinquish his rights so that her husband could adopt my siblings.
Honestly, I think it broke my father’s heart, because my siblings did turn their backs on him. He’d tried to initiate going to visit them and calling, but they really didn’t want anything to do with him. He was adamant he wasn’t, but I guess he talked to my siblings, and they stated this is what they wanted, so he did.
My gp’s are now deceased. I’ve been my father’s full-time caregiver for the last seven years. After years of continuous fighting for justice. My father finally received it, in a huge settlement. At the beginning of this year his health took a turn for the worse, within months he was gone.
I’ve been estranged from my mother and siblings since I was a teenager, but once she heard of my father’s passing, she reached out. I honestly didn’t think too much of it because I thought she was reaching out to give her condolences like everyone else. Not the case.
She wanted to know why I hadn’t reached out to her and my siblings. That they were going to need their part of their inheritance soon. I honestly didn’t know how to respond but be brutally honest. I told her the moment he relinquished his rights, they no longer were his children per her request. I asked was she drunk? She said no. Then I responded she had to be stupid calling me thinking they were entitled to anything.
Of course, she’s gotten other family involved stating that I’m in the wrong and that my father was aware that my siblings still considered him their father. BS! What are your opinions? Please don’t be afraid to criticize.
Here are a few comments on the story where it was originally posted:
