Virginia received a surprise inheritance from an old friend.Illustration by Photo illustration by The Globe and Mail. Source image: Getty Images
The beneficiary: Virginia is an 81-year-old retiree living in a large Canadian city. After many hard years as a working single mother of two, she retired from her career as a data co-ordinator as she neared 60 and has been living the good grandma life ever since. Virginia has four grownish grandkids and a ton of very lucky and grateful friends.
The inheritance: Last fall, Virginia received a surprise phone call. “They said I was a beneficiary in a will and told me the amount. Thank goodness I was sitting down,” she said. Long story short: Virginia was gifted several hundred thousand dollars from an old (male) friend she met at work. In the almost 25 years since she retired, they stayed in touch via “nice dinners, long phone calls, visits to art galleries and theatres and museums.” (Was it romantic? “Oh, no, no, not at all. Nothing like that. We were just good friends with lots of mutual interests.”)
Throughout their friendship, Virginia had no idea he had an estate of that size nor any indication anything would go her way after his health declined rapidly during the pandemic. She was just one of many beneficiaries named in the will; her portion – somewhere right in the middle of seven figures – was a mere slice of a great big pie.
What she did with it: After the initial shock wore off, a few weeks later, Virginia finally told her two children and then made a wise call to her accountant. “The first thing was tax implications and all that stuff, then I knew exactly what I had to give away,” she said. Though she might have made different choices 40 years ago, Virginia at 81 – who was “financially comfortable even before this” – decided to give (almost) every dollar of her surprise inheritance away.
“I sat down at my kitchen table and made up a list of friends, relatives, institutions and charities that I thought would resonate with my friend,” she said. She put a lot of thought into designating each an appropriate amount, from $3,000 to $25,000, and wrote a personal note with each. “I told them each something about my friend and that this money was from him.”
What they do with the money, however, is their choice. “I may have my ideas of what it’d be good for, but the money came without caveats or instructions or suggestions.” She didn’t ask, but some have shared how they will spend their gift: One friend is buying a set of hearing aids, another has first and last month’s rent to move, and another still is starting a business. Her responsible grandkids are putting their money in TFSAs and saving for a home.
And did she include herself at all on the list of lucky recipients? “I did a few little renovations around my house that needed to be done,” she said. Day to day, she’s a bit more relaxed with cash and always picks up the tab just because she can. Her friend would have wanted it that way.
The revelation: Though sufficiently flush now, Virginia’s memories of harder times remain all too clear. “When I was young and on my own, I’d sometimes be down to five cents in my chequing account. Literally.” People helped her when they could, and now that she’s in a similar position, she considers it her duty to pay it forward.
Giving away so much money is made easier when you don’t consider it yours to begin with. “I think of this money as a trust for my friend, and I use it as I think he would want me to use it,” she said. So just as he gave the money away with discreet dignity, that’s her plan too.
She’s hoping the ripple effect will go far and wide, and that those who benefited will be similarly generous when the time comes. What goes around comes around, and Virginia’s been lucky enough to land on the other side, where money isn’t as important as before. “For me,” she said, “the pleasure of giving is worth more than the money.”