Be Kind to Your Web-footed Friends

A long time ago Mitch Miller used this as his theme song. "Be Kind to your Web-footed Friends, for a duck may be somebody's mother." The following is a true story that happened to a friend of mine and for some reason it brought to mind this song when it happened.

The Inheritance

By Ann Roberts

Joseph read the letter he had just received and thought to himself "I just got back from burying Uncle John and now the lawyer wants me to come back out there to tie up some loose ends". This would mean taking more time off from his job and he needed the money badly for his family. And over the years when he would go to check on Uncle John, his wife would get upset at him. Uncle John had left home many years before and moved to Texas to make his fortune. Apparantly, all his dreams had fallen through and he lived as a pauper. Joseph was the only one in the family who ever tried to spend any time with him or help him.

Uncle John, when alive, had not been a very pleasant person to be around and the rest of his family had stayed away. But Joseph felt someone should go to see to his needs once in a while so he went.

The letter sounded as though the trip was absolutely necessary, so he took the time from his job and left the next day. He thought all the way about his uncle. Every time he had gone to see about him, Uncle John had seemed glad to see him and thanked him for his help. He just could not understand why he was the only one who ever bothered to go. Surely, some of them were better able to make the trips.

When he arrived at the lawyer's office, he was taken to a private room. The lawyer told him he had been named sole heir to his uncle's estate. Joseph thought "What in the world will I do with the few things that Uncle John had? I have no place to store them so I suppose I will just give them away." After the will was read the lawyer asked Joseph if he knew what his uncle had left him. When Joseph replied that he really didn't the lawyer smiled and said "Your uncle left you almost three million dollars and if you will sign these papers it all belongs to you."