What is a Columbarium?
After cremations services in Solvay, NY, if the deceased had a will (and we hope all you who are living and reading this also have wills), it will be executed and the bequests bequeathed upon the recipients named in the will. This is usually pretty unremarkable process.
However, some people have made some very strange requests in their last wills, and those are the ones that stand out from the pack.
Pets as heirs is one of those areas of strange requests.
For example, Maria Assunta, who had a $13 million estate, left everything to her cat, Tommaso, a stray she had adopted four years before her death. Not only did Tommaso get cold, hard cash, but he also inherited property in Rome, Calabria, and Milan, Italy.
Miami Beach socialite Gail Posner died in 2010. Of her fortune, she left $1 million to her son, Brett Carr, and a $3 million trust to her dogs, Conchita, Lucia, and April Maria. Posner’s son lost no time in contesting the will.
When the singer Dusty Springfield died of cancer in 1999, she left her cat, Nicholas, very well off. However, Springfield had very specific requirements for Nicholas: he could eat only American baby food; he was to live in a seven-foot indoor treehouse; and, he was to married the cat of the person that Springfield had appointed to be Nicholas’ guardian.
The German countess, Karlotta Liebenstein, left her $65 million estate to Gunter III, her German Shepherd. When Gunther III died, his son, Gunther IV, inherited the estate, which had grown to $200 million. Gunther IV now owns a mansion in Miami that was once owned by Madonna, as well of several villas in both the Bahamas and in Italy. Gunther IV eats well: caviar and streak are part of his daily diet.
And then there are those strange requests in wills that amount to the big get even.
For instance, Annie Langabeer, an Englishwoman, left two shillings and sixpence to her brother after she died. Her only stipulation was that he had to go “buy a rope” to hang himself. Sibling rivalry at its finest!
The English playwright and poet, William Shakespeare, did a one off toward his wife after his death. While the bulk of his estate was left to his daughter, he left his “second-best bed” to his wife.
The will in this category of getting even after that is perhaps the most astounding is the will of American millionaire Wellington Burt, who died in 1919. No one seems to know exactly what happened in his relationship with his family, but whatever it was, it must have been bad. In Burt’s will, he stipulated that his significant fortune could not be given to anyone in his family until 21 years after his last surviving grandchild had died. In 2010, twelve living relatives were notified about their inheritances.
Some last wills include odd stuff that is strange.
Napoleon Bonaparte, for example, wanted all his hair to be shaved off and distributed among his friends.
John Bowman, a wealthy gentleman from Vermont, believed he and his family would come back in a second life. Therefore, he set up a $50,000 trust to maintain his mansion, so that it would inhabitable when he and his family came back in the afterlife. He instructed his servants to cook a full dinner every night – so the family would have something to eat when they came back – and this request was honored for almost 60 years (1891-1950) until there was no more money left in the trust.
For information about cremations services in Solvay, NY, our compassionate and experienced team at Bagozzi Twins Funeral Home, Inc. is here to help. You can visit our funeral home at 2601 Milton Ave., Solvay, NY 13209, or you can call us today at (315) 468-2431.
