Dog Days #5

Fandango has given us Inheritance as our prompt today.
FDDA 5th August

My family weren’t rich, so any monetary inheritance was a non starter, and after my Dad died, Mum made her own funeral arrangements so that us kids wouldn’t have the worry. She never had a lot of money and as she was on a reduced pension, qualified for pension credits. She always put her winter heating allowance (even though the government started to reduce it every year) towards Christmas as she couldn’t get out to buy gifts so would send a small cheque to the grandchildren however many times removed. Before her death, we had five living generations, now we still do but they are sideways by means of uncles and aunts rather than a direct line.
When Mum came up to us for holidays, she always ‘paid her way’ by contributing to the household shop or treating us to cakes or similar if we were out.
Therefore you can imagine my utter surprise and pleasure to receive a cheque from my sister as my ‘quarter share’ of Mum’s estate two years ago.
It wasn’t a huge amount, but for my Mum’s circumstances it was a lot, and enough to buy a few things for the house, including a much needed new cooker. I have the box of Mum’s treasures she put aside for me, each item in a box marked with my name in her hand.

Inheritance isn’t just about money. It’s a host of things, like my natural gift for music passed on from my Dad, my love of nature and animals, my rapport with dogs, my hazel brown eyes, my good skin, my sense of caring, being a ‘people person’, all wrapped up in my general persona and inherited from not only my parents, but the generations before.
I like to think I got most of the good stuff!

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