Keep Living Or Give Away

I, Jim Walter, presently of, Denver, Colorado, declare that this is my last will and testament…

Yes, I am writing and finalizing my will. I know who deserves to take over my assets, my legacy, my belongings… 

It does feel weird when you have been around for over a century on this planet. I am Jim Walter. I am still going strong and I believe I can reach 110. 

I have seen a lot in my life. Good things, bad things, indifferent things, and things you learn from. One thing that has been really difficult to accept is that I have outlived my spouse and my two kids. Life can be beautiful but without my wife, my kids, my siblings, and my parents, it feels like a knife pierced my heart.

The last survivor was my wife who passed away three years ago of natural cause. She was almost a hundred. She was in bed for many months before the call came for her to go up there. I lost my both kids to cancer. That was major grief for my wife and myself. I loved her so much and now, I feel like I should leave soon this world to join her. Elizabeth, my wife, would not want me to commit such a cowardice act though. She told me that my time will come when it is due. She told me I must keep going, live, laugh, fight, stay healthy, and keep finding purposes to live for. 

It is so difficult though when the only blood-related members live so far away and barely have time to meet this old prehistoric creature. I do have four grandkids whom they have a total of six kids of their own. Unfortunately, I am a stranger to them. 

I have this young man who is 16-year-old that lives three houses away from mine. A great kid named David. He lives with his mom, Cynthia. A single mom and his son. I know that the mother works really hard to give the best life for her son. A lot of times she works eighty-hour shifts. She is a nurse so the need is always there for overtime. We all know, that extra incoming can never hurt if spent and invested wisely. 

David has more than a few times crossed my path. He knows that I am an old lonely man living by himself. So, when I get off the cab or the public bus at the corner of the street with my groceries or shopping bags, and that David is sitting outside on his porch with a book or his smartphone, he would always come running to me and help out with my bags. At first, I did not want his help. I always avoided asking for help from people. One thing life has taught me, always rely upon yourself as much as possible. However, with age, and loneliness, it becomes difficult to not ask for this kind of help. With time passing and myself getting to know David better, I started to open up to him about my life. I felt I was talking to my great-grandson. I was spending more time with him now than any of my blood-related family members. I become so close to David, that we would come over and play chess with me. Sometimes we would watch a movie. Have supper. I was invited many times to his place to have a good meal with him and her mom. They become my new family we can say.

So many times, I have called my grandkids and great-grandkids. None of them had time to talk to me over the phone, reply to my emails or text message me. With technology at your fingertips, 24/7 available, I would assume I would stay in touch with them easily. Unfortunately, it was not the case. I felt like I was back in my childhood where people needed to write and mail letters to stay in touch with relatives and friends.

One day, I decided to conduct a test. What kind of test? A test about love and loyalty. Yes. I needed to how much my descendants loved me. So, I proceeded to send an SMS, email, and place a phone call to each one of them. I need to know who would answer me. Over the next few weeks, my goal was to make sure to attempt to reach all of them. Even the youngest ones had smartphones so there was no excuse. After a month, I had reached out to all of them. Guess what? No one called me back, reply to my email or by text message. I even had left a voicemail message to them. No calls, no email, and no SMS! My suspicions were justified. It seems that they were just waiting for my passing away and to take over my property. To divide the sale of my house among themselves to get a good chunk of cash. This is without saying all the expensive pieces of art and collectibles I had accumulated over the years. Elizabeth always loved art. Several paintings were on the walls of this house where I spent the last seventy-five years of my life. 

If it wasn’t for David and Cynthia, I would say that my life was lifeless. At this point, I kind of knew who would get my house, my assets, my precious belongings…

One final test though was left to be sure about my own family. This time, I decided to call the eldest of them. My grandson, Jack. He did not answer but I left a message on his voicemail asking him if he can come over because I was ill and I needed to finalize my will. Five minutes after my call ended by leaving a voicemail, my cell phone rings. It is from Jack. He called and seem very excited. Asking me when he could come over to see me and that he was anxious, worried. It took me just one call to one of my relatives, and mention that I needed to discuss my will to get a call back within minutes! I was just a big paycheck to them. I kind of knew this was the expected outcome. I told Jack to wait a little bit because I was busy with home renovations and that I was not that sick. I did not give him more details. He kept calling me every few days. That same person had not contacted me in over fifteen years is now calling me a few times a week!

My will is not finalized but if David and his mom keep treating me that way, I know what to do next. Or…should I test their love and loyalty also before making anything final on paper?