There Is Gold In Those Hills

I read a great column by a columnist named Susan Writer and it was all about finding about three hundred dollars in small bills, when she was cleaning out her Mom’s house. Three hundred is a nice amount of money. I know of a larger find and a true story. At a doctor’s office I use to visit, the lovely medical assistant was always complaining about her mother-in-law taking a lot of time from this woman’s husband. Of course, as a son or daughter, you have some obligations to your parents as they get older. We do not mind helping them out, as they always were there for us and now it is our turn to show our love for them in return. So one Christmas, the mother-in-law who now lived in Florida and the son lived in Baltimore County, well, she asked her son to visit her during the holidays. His wife, my friend from the doctor’s office was very perturbed. She could have gone down there too, but she hesitated and then she decided to visit too. So they both went and after being there for a few days, the elderly lady passed on. They had the funeral down there in Florida and they decided to start cleaning out the home while they were there and to get it put up for sale. While cleaning, scrubbing and disposing of the things they did not want, they came across a stash of one million, six hundred thousand dollars in small bills. The highest bill was fifty or one hundred. The rest were twenties and tens. They were overwhelmed, , she had been been quite frugal and never really went anywhere after her husband died. The son and his brother and their wives were stunned. The bills were hidden in bedroom furniture drawers and in old cupboards in the house. They had never imagined the elderly woman had done something like this. The two sons split up the money, put the home for sale and they all came back to the Maryland area where they lived. The two daughters-in-law quit their jobs, told their bosses why they were leaving and they went on trips to England, France and all over the country here. They bought nice big cars and were or are having a great time. I remember for Christmas, I once bought the lady I knew from the doctor’s office, a pair of gold earrings that cost about fifty dollars, because she was so nice to me all the time. She told me she did not have much jewelry because they were saving for their retirement. They were about in their fifties when this happened. She loved the earrings and now she could afford many more, dozens of good jewelry, all because her mother-in-law, who she did not like when alive, had accumulated this wealth. They, the two sons could not believe or conceive where and how did she get this money? They presumed that her late husband did not know about this either. She must have been playing the stock market, but she never reported they assume her gains on their joint income tax and how she got away doing that they could not even begin to imagine. All of the patients learned of her good luck and everyone was happy for her. Once, we saw her in a restaurant after she had received the money; she was just as nice, as sweet, but much happier. Wow, what a story, I could not be happier for her. Rarely, do you hear something of a windfall like this. She was wearing when I saw her, some really pretty jewelry When Mom moved from her apartment after Dad died, we helped her and she went into a brand new, never lived in one, in a new development about fifteen minutes from me. When she passed on twenty years later and we were cleaning out her possessions, I found a copy of my dad’s graduation program from law school, old pictures from her young days and a few pieces of costume jewelry. I also had her cultured pearls I had given to her for her 60th birthday. When I gave them, I thought sixty was real old because I was 27 years younger. Of course, that thought disappears when you become sixty or seventy. Now I will be 82 this coming June, so hopefully, 80 's does not look, not too old n After Mom had moved, about four years later, we got a call from the daughter of the owner of the apartment building Mom had lived in before Dad died. She was at her parents’ home cleaning out there belongings, because they had passed on and she found a letter addressed recently to Mom from an insurance company. So she mailed it to Mom at the new place. It was from them stating that there was an insurance policy that Dad had and never told her about and they had learned somehow of his death and she was entitled to five thousand dollars. Wow, this was nothing like one million or more, but it was a delightful bit of news. We were lucky that this young woman had the kindness to try and find Mom (she did by looking in the phone directory and saw Mom’s name) and she was concerned and thought it might be some kind of bill or some kind of money due Mom. It was very nice of her. Mom called her and thanked her. Her name was Ida and she had always been a sweet young girl growing up in the same building where I was a teen too. She was a few years younger than me. So Mom had her new treasure due to the caring of the apartment building owner’s daughter and her keen observation of the envelope. So here were two treasures, one over a million dollars and one only five thousand dollars. Both were as the saying goes "there is gold in those hills." elita sohmer clayman