Why you need a living will
The mighty Afrigo Band has a song praising the bountiful beauty of women. They remind us that every woman has something that makes her admirer go weak at the knees. I want to believe that the moral of the song is to urge men not to rush into relationships just because they cannot reject the beauty of their objects of desire. But of course this sound advice is always ignored and often, to disastrous consequences.
One of those who suffered such consequences is a childhood friend who had a weakness for light skinned women with a gap in their upper teeth. When you have such low base prequalifications, it is easy to “fall in love” over and over again. Because what Uganda has in abundance are light skinned women with a tooth gap. Anyway so, my friend married the first light skinned girl with a tooth gap who accepted his proposal. The couple had two children but he left the family because he met another similarly gifted woman who accepted his overtures.
The new woman demanded to be wed before moving in with him. So, he moved mountains to make it happen. In the following years, there were a number of light skinned, upper toothed gap women that went in and out of his bed. When the wedded wife could not take it anymore, she packed and left with her children. By this time, my friend was less vigorous and was battling a chronic ailment. So, we were relieved when we learnt that he had reconciled with the original light-skinned woman.
It turns out the woman had more gifts than her physical attributes; she was also enterprising and hardworking. Fortunately, her hard work had paid off and she was now a bonafide multimillionaire. She had properties and thriving businesses in the city. Although my friend was not exactly a pauper, his income was thinly stretched among all those exes and their children. That is why we thought this woman was a saint for taking him back and moreover, in his condition.
With all these entanglements, my friend neglected his duty of putting things in order. We often joked about it and he would say his life had been dramatic and he wanted it to remain that way long after his death. And so he got his wish. It has been years and his five women and 21 children are yet to recieve their inheritance as the estate is yet to be settled. Lawyers are having a field day. In fact, the estate is shrinking every day due to litigation costs as each woman is said to have taken out a hefty loan to hire the best lawyer hoping that they will sell one asset or other to clear the loan once they have been declared the winner.
This messed up legacy is a situation that is replayed in our society every day, simply because we have a morbid fear of making wills. Our customs have conditioned us to believe that writing a will is tempting death, so we put it off for later. Unfortunately, many of us will never get that opportunity when our later comes.
We might wake up only to find that it is too late to do anything about it, only to leave our loved ones at the mercy of vultures.
By the way, you do not have to have properties and bank accounts burdened with billions to make a will, as long as you have dependants you need to do it. Consider it an act of love or a token of kindness that will make your passing less traumatic.
I remember having to help out a young woman who was left destitute after her boyfriend’s passing. The girl had pooled resources with her boyfriend to start importing computers and other gadgets from China. They moved in together, each bringing what they had to make a comfortable home for themselves. Unfortunately, her boyfriend died in an accident and that is when his family took everything away from her. They stripped the shop and the home, claiming it was their son’s property. By the time they were done, she did not even have a mat to sit on. To make matters worse, she discovered she was expecting their child a few days later. She told me she had been so traumatised by her ex’s people that she did not want to subject her unborn child to them. She decided never to tell the child about that family.
Imagine how much damage would have been averted by a simple written document stating this man’s wishes.
Making a will not kill you. We have heard so many tales of spouses killing their partners and forging wills to inherit their property. Such a scenario would be impossible if you had a will that is well documented and well kept.
