{"id":18206,"date":"2025-07-23T15:58:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T15:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/18206\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T15:58:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T15:58:18","slug":"this-retiree-was-shocked-to-find-herself-the-beneficiary-of-an-old-friends-will","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/18206\/","title":{"rendered":"This retiree was shocked to find herself the beneficiary of an old friend\u2019s will"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Virginia received a surprise inheritance from an old friend.Illustration by Photo illustration by The Globe and Mail. Source image: Getty Images<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The inheritance: Last fall, Virginia received a surprise phone call. \u201cThey said I was a beneficiary in a will and told me the amount. Thank goodness I was sitting down,\u201d 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 \u201cnice dinners, long phone calls, visits to art galleries and theatres and museums.\u201d (Was it romantic? \u201cOh, no, no, not at all. Nothing like that. We were just good friends with lots of mutual interests.\u201d) <\/p>\n

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 \u2013 somewhere right in the middle of seven figures \u2013 was a mere slice of a great big pie.<\/p>\n

Financial Facelift: What\u2019s the best way for Mark, 62, and Rebecca, 59, to use a $1-million inheritance?<\/a><\/p>\n

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. \u201cThe first thing was tax implications and all that stuff, then I knew exactly what I had to give away,\u201d she said. Though she might have made different choices 40 years ago, Virginia at 81 \u2013 who was \u201cfinancially comfortable even before this\u201d \u2013 decided to give (almost) every dollar of her surprise inheritance away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d 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. \u201cI told them each something about my friend and that this money was from him.\u201d <\/p>\n

What they do with the money, however, is their choice. \u201cI may have my ideas of what it\u2019d be good for, but the money came without caveats or instructions or suggestions.\u201d She didn\u2019t 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\u2019s rent to move, and another still is starting a business. Her responsible grandkids are putting their money in TFSAs and saving for a home.<\/p>\n

And did she include herself at all on the list of lucky recipients? \u201cI did a few little renovations around my house that needed to be done,\u201d she said. Day to day, she\u2019s a bit more relaxed with cash and always picks up the tab just because she can. Her friend would have wanted it that way.<\/p>\n

The revelation: Though sufficiently flush now, Virginia\u2019s memories of harder times remain all too clear. \u201cWhen I was young and on my own, I\u2019d sometimes be down to five cents in my chequing account. Literally.\u201d People helped her when they could, and now that she\u2019s in a similar position, she considers it her duty to pay it forward.<\/p>\n

Giving away so much money is made easier when you don\u2019t consider it yours to begin with. \u201cI think of this money as a trust for my friend, and I use it as I think he would want me to use it,\u201d she said. So just as he gave the money away with discreet dignity, that\u2019s her plan too. <\/p>\n

She\u2019s 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\u2019s been lucky enough to land on the other side, where money isn\u2019t as important as before. \u201cFor me,\u201d she said, \u201cthe pleasure of giving is worth more than the money.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Virginia received a surprise inheritance from an old friend.Illustration by Photo illustration by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,4176,4174,4175,11749,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-18206","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-personal-finance","11":"tag-personalfinance","12":"tag-r-fp","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}