Did I Ever Tell You?

About my brother's inheritance.

The two most memorable events in the 70's for me was my baby brother being born, and my grandmother dying less than 2 months later. My sister and I were shuffled off to stay with my dad's parents in Missouri when my mother went out to California to care for my grandmother. I was 8 years old.

I remember my mother telling my sis and I that grandma had cancer and that she was going to die. Mom felt it was best to be honest with us about this fact. There would be no more cassette tapes with a narrative from grandma, there would be no more visits, the would be no more presents on all of those special occasions that grandma always saw to sending.

We were only at my other grandparent's house for at most what seemed a week before mom and dad came from California. My grandmother called us from outside saying our parent's had arrived. We went into the living room, my grandfather sat in his usual spot on the couch. The spot I so often remember walking up to him and having him wrap his arms tightly around me giving me the "bear hug" I loved to receive.

Mom and dad sat on the love seat. After saying our hello's I turned to my mom and asked, "Where is grandma?" I knew she just had to have got all better from the cancer, and had come with my parents from California. Mom said, "She died, she is not with us." I was crushed. I turned to my grandpa, he was ready with open arms. I realize now that he was there to offer support as my parents had to give us the news.

I don't remember anything else about that time except the actual funeral. My grandmother's body was flown out to the small Missouri town, and all the family from all around came. I had never seen my dad's parents interact with my mom's family. At that age, I didn't even think any of them knew each other at all. I remember that my dad's mother was not going to go to the funeral. She didn't tell me why. As a child I thought it was because she didn't care, or didn't know my grandmother.

I will never forget as we all gathered around the grave site I looked behind me, and there stood my grandfather, my dad's dad. I felt so much better that he came. That he was there on that sad day. This is one of the most vivid memories I have of my grandfather. It was that time that he was there when we needed him so much. He told me if I ever needed anything at all I could call him whenever I wanted for any reason. I wish I could call him sometime, but he's gone, he passed away only a few short years later. He was such a funny and intelligent man.

Well, my grandmother, my mom's mom, she was very specific in her will as to where she wanted her belongings to go. She left my older sister a diamond broach, it was stolen years later from my parent's home. She left me a roll top secretary, which I have sitting in my living room now. I don't know why she left me that piece of furniture, she just did. She left my brother, whom she would never have the chance to know, a valuable silver dollar. An extremely valuable silver dollar.

I suppose she did this because he was her first grandson, and her heart must have been so broken that she would never get to be a part of his life as she was for my sister and I. Whatever her reasoning, that is what she choose to do. Everyone knew this.

When my mother was out in California caring for her, she told my mother where she had hidden the silver dollar. At the time various family members, church people and friends had been coming and going offering care, and support for my dying grandmother.

After everything was over, and my parent's returned from California with a U-haul of everything my grandmother owned, my mom went to the item where my grandmother had told her she had hidden the silver dollar, the coin was gone. Someone had taken it. My mom thought perhaps she had misunderstood my grandmother, she looked through everything with a fine toothed comb, it wasn't there.

It has never been found. Someone stole it. It is gone. Someone has it, the inheritance intended for my baby brother. It was someone close enough to my grandmother that she would have confided in them. My mother was obviously very distraught at time, she wasn't paying attention to people, who were trusted by my grandmother anyway. It was hidden in a place only someone with knowledge would look. My grandmother had sewn it into an item that would have completely concealed it.

My mother looked through the item, it had been cut open and patched over. It was not there. It is gone. It has been nearly 30 years since then, I suppose we will never know what happened to it. Many of the people who were there have since died anyway. It is a shame, but it is what it is.

Now, if we could only get my mother to give up my grandmother's clothes. I'm serious, she has a closet full of my grandma's clothes. She won't give them up, we've tried. She can't even fit them besides they are from the 70's. I can't blame her I guess, sometimes it is hard to let things like that go.