My great Aunt's brother (who I guess would be a great Uncle to me, but I wasn't as close with him) passed away that fall. He had historically handled all her finances and bills for her since her husband passed in the 80s, so when he died she sat down with the company one of my cousins works at to kinda get her affairs in order and figure out how to handle things going forward, since she really never had her own hands on the process.

In going over her portfolio, they found a trust fund with hundreds of thousands of dollars that had kinda just ... sat there collecting dough since my great Aunt's own parents died way way way back. Her head exploded.

Being the selfless, amazing individual she is, rather than sitting on the money or giving it to charity or something, she decided to be charitable to all her nieces and nephews. She never had children of her own, so she didn't have anyone to will it to when her day (hopefully never) comes.

So anyway.....it's holiday season 2012. I had spent one of my 3 (so far) summers renting a house in Newport RI, and Christmas costs were piling up so I was ironically, right around that time, kinda re-evaluating my own finances to try and catch back up with all I had spent and continued to spend. I wasn't broke by any means, I do really well at my job but my spending had just gotten out of control.

So imagine my surprise when I grab my mail that December day to see an envelope from some bank's trust, not having any idea where it came from and suspecting it as junk mail. I (thankfully) opened it up just to be sure, and BOOM, $13,000.00. On a check. With my name on it. Still suspecting some kind of scam, I read through every single word of the check and the enclosed letter. It was a gift from her trust that she decided to just spread out to all her nieces and nephews, and she gave the highest amount allowed under Uncle Sam's "gift tax" law so it would remain untaxable income.

Come February 2013, another check, this time for $14,000.00 came through. Same deal in January 2014. And if I'm reading her correctly, another check will be coming through January 2015.

Needless to say I have showered that woman with endless visits, gifts, calls, etc., whatever she needs to keep her going. She just turned 90 in August. She has always been wildly important to me so this just adds to her magic. I wasn't in desperate need of funds or anything like I said, but just having that financial cushion to invest, or buy a crib, or a car, or whatever, has been pretty fucking awesome.

So yea ... that was unexpected. Haha.

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"Fuck aliens." © WarriorPoet415