Penniless

“Where is the key?” Myrtle looked at her older sister as she approached the door.

“I have it here. Her friend, Karen I believe is the name, sent it to me yesterday.” Bertha responded as she rummaged in her bag for the key. “Here it is. Hope this doesn’t take too long.”

“Shouldn’t, she didn’t have much. What I think, we won’t find anything we want. So all of it can go to the dumpster in a couple of days when it comes,” Myrtle stood aside as Bertha inserted the key and the door opened. The sisters went into the small house and started to look around the living room to mentally rank anything of value that they wanted to take home.

“Well, this Karen, is to come to take a few things to charities and places Julia wanted them to go to. At least we don’t have to worry about her dogs. I know Julia didn’t want them to go to the APL, but it would be the easiest. I wouldn’t want to have to find homes for them, it might take some time and who wants a bunch of old dogs anyway,” Bertha never did agree with Julia taking care of more than one dog and was very happy to find all the animals gone from the home.

“Sorry, I’m late,” Karen said breathlessly as she came through the door. “My son, Michael, wanted to come along. He loves car rides.”

“Just what is it that you said we had to wait for you and couldn’t just go through the rooms and take what we wanted?” Bertha looked bored wishing she could just go through the house and see if there was anything she could sell and leave.

“Julia wanted her spinning wheels to go to the historical society, the antique dolls to the museum downtown, and her books to go to the local library’s ‘Take a Book, Leave a Book’ outbuilding for the homeless to have reading books. I have an appointment with her attorney this afternoon so he can get the will and other documents together to finish up with her financial arrangements. He wants her budget book with a list of upcoming bills and anything else he may need to see that her wishes are upheld,” Karen informed the sisters.

“Well, I don’t think she had a will and as far as finances, she couldn’t save money. She didn’t work hard, always seemed to be between jobs. She told me she needed dentures and I offered to put down some, but she said they would cost much more than that. She could have gone to a dental school and got them cheap if the students did it. That’s what my dentist told me,” Myrtle commented. “But, take what you want, mark anything that she wanted to go to someone else. Bertha and I are going upstairs to see if we can find the rings she promised to our daughters. She didn’t change her mind on those, did she?”

“No, she told me that the rings were for the girls. I believe you will find them in a small box in the top drawer of the jewelry cabinet. I will mark the items on the list so you know to leave them. I will be back tomorrow to get them,” Karen replied as she got the list Julia had given her earlier of items that were being donated to different charities and other places.

“Want to see what the other rooms look like besides her bedroom in case she has something of value she didn’t tell us about?” Myrtle looked at Bertha as they got to the top of the stairs.

“Sure, why not. I don’t expect anything and Karen can deal with her clothes and worn out furniture,” Bertha readily agreed.

Looking into the first bedroom at the top of the stairs the sisters only saw a spinning wheel, some other colonial items, and a bookshelf loaded with books about spiritual animals, libraries, and crafts. The room across the hall had art supplies, old magazines in different organizational boxes, and shelves with yarn and other craft supplies. The third bedroom was obviously Julia’s bedroom.

“Well, this is dullville,” Bertha sighed. “Let’s just find the rings and get out of here. There’s nothing worthy of us taking any more time.”

Entering the room, the sisters made their way to the jewelry tower and looking into the top drawer found the small box with the rings.

“See anything else to your liking?” Bertha looked at Myrtle.

“Well, some of this holiday costume jewelry is cute, maybe the grandkids would like it. Look she has another set of those sand dollar set of earrings that you wear, you could always have a backup in case you lose one of the ones you have.” Myrtle replied as she pushed around a few more pairs of earrings thinking of her granddaughters and what they might like.

Bertha having older grandchildren looked more closely at the necklaces, but not finding anything to her liking started to the door. “Coming?”

“Yep, done here,” Myrtle shook her head, “Strange to think you can live seventy-five years and have so little to show for it. What did she do all day besides take in strays?”

“I have no idea, but it wasn’t having a beautiful house. These floors need to be carpeted, the ceilings need to be fixed in a couple of places, and what is it about having each room in different color? She wanted to live in a rainbow?” Bertha started the laughter as they descended the stairs.

“All ready to go?” Karen looked at the sisters and wondered what was so funny.

“Yes, do you have everything you need?” Bertha motioned to the stack of books and papers on the table beside a well worn chair in the living room.

“Yes, I believe so. I have the few items she wanted in the coffin with her and her budget book. Should be all the lawyer needs. Oh, I almost forgot. She wants to be buried in her zoo uniform. The zoo was her happy place. That and she wanted her doctoral robe with her. No one else would want it. Anyway, they’re both upstairs, back in a minute,” Karen responded as she dashed upstairs.

Karen came back down the stairs and found the sisters at the front door waiting impatiently. Going over to the items on the table, Karen started to pick them up when the books slid and ended dropping onto the floor.

“Oh, great,” Myrtle sighed. “Here, I’ll help you get them together. We really need to get going.”

Stooping together the three women gathered the books and papers together as Bertha picked up the clothes items.

“I’ll carry these to your car. Oh, there’s a little black book that came from that stack. It’s under the corner of the chair,” Bertha said with obvious irritation in her voice. She went out to Karen’s car and dumped the clothes on the back seat. Turning to go to her own car she generally waved at Karen. Myrtle followed getting into the passenger side of Bertha’s car. They sped off before Karen had time to look up from placing the books and papers onto the back seat of her car. The little black notebook was on top of the pile and Karen picked it up to see if it was necessary to give to the lawyer.

“Oh, my God,” Karen whispered and decided to put the notebook into her purse instead of leaving it out with the rest of the papers.

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Seventy two hours later the three women found themselves outside Joseph Duane’s door. They looked at each other with curiosity as well as skepticism.

“I knew we would be called, but why are you here?” Bertha challenged Karen seeing her.

“Didn’t you get all of Julia’s things? I think the dumpster has already been to the house, so there isn’t anything left. He is just going to be reading the will, to have it all be official. I’m sure Julia doesn’t have anything worthwhile that you would want and you aren’t even family,” Myrtle dared Karen to give a good reason for her presence.

“I got a call from Mr. Duane that I needed to show up. Why he called, well I guess we will find out in a few minutes,” Karen shrugged her shoulders and reached for the door handle to enter the office.

“Good morning ladies,” Mr. Duane called out from the inner office. “Sorry, but my secretary is out today, so come on back.”

The three of them entered his office and sat in the chairs placed across from the lawyer as he rearranged a few papers on his desk. The papers and books that Karen had taken from Julia’s house were stacked on the corner of the desk with the small black notebook on top.

“Ok, now this will only take a few minutes as there isn’t much into this will. I will be giving each of you a copy of the will for your files, but you will see that it’s a standard Internet will where you just fill in the blanks. The two items mentioned were rings to be given to your daughters, did you get these?” Mr. Duane looked up from the will. Both Bertha and Myrtle nodded their heads as they continued to read through the will.

“Any problems?” Mr. Duane looked up again only to notice that both sisters shook their heads yet they wore looks of disappointment.

“Guess we were kinda hoping for a surprise. She didn’t have anything. We have the only things of value,” Myrtle said with some sadness.

“Well, there is one thing,” Mr. Duane said. “There is this little black notebook. Have you seen inside?”

With a shake of their heads, the sisters looked at him in curiosity.

“Seems Julia kept a journal of her life. The year and date with a description of the situation that occurred and the initials of the person involved, but the full names of the organizations if it was required. Now you know she has five degrees through her doctorate, but did you know she supported two girls in India, supported a number of cat and dog shelters with taking in the ones that would never find a home, supported her church, the zoo, local theatrical theater, and there are a number of individual friends that needed financial help that she gave money to? She helped build homes for the people that needed help. Gave over eight gallons of blood and that she was an organ donor? Did you know she wrote four books? Some for the zoo to help the volunteers and some for the general read. The last one was about the women of the Bible and their lives as impacted by Jesus. Have you seen the movie ‘Were You There’? It was from her book.”

“Well, now to why Karen is here. Julia left a special letter in her budget book to give to you with the rest of the information in the black notebook. Seems that you have been her best friend for a long time. Having been with her when you were working at Markley and then after that. You made a great impact on her for being there and especially when you let her hold your newborn preemie son, Michael. She was so impressed that you trusted her to hold him at the hospital, only four pounds. She wanted to leave him something special. She started a fund for his college education. Inside the black notebook is a savings book for him with the savings of twenty thousand dollars to help him start his college life anywhere he wants to go. Here you are,” Mr. Duane stood up as he put the small savings book, on top of the black notebook into Karen’s trembling hands. “You are quite a friend.”