[So and so] died and all I got was this lousy t-shirt!

Tweet

(Disclaimer - the title is meant as a knock off of the t-shirts that I see all over that are given as souvenirs of trips and not meant to be disprespectful in any way.) When we were home on vacation last week somehow we got onto the subject of dying and wills. I was surprised when my MIL started listing off the things that her daughters (they have two, and my husband is their only son) had already told them that they wanted when my inlaws died and ask if there was anything in particular we wanted. Apparently they were also concerned about who would be executor of the will so that none of the three siblings could get into a fight or get more than their "share". They named an attorney, I think, so that it was someone outside of the situation and impartial. My husband's grandparents died last year and the mess afterward was just nuts! People fighting over stuff and thinking they didn't get enough of whatever, which wasn't much since they didn't have much. My aunt (not that I claim her) actually left my grandfather's funeral early (Grandma had died the year before) so that she could go to his house and take what she wanted before anyone else could get there. She still complained and even filed paperwork with an attorney against my parents (my dad was executor) saying she didn't get her "half". Half of what?!? They didn't have anything of money value, even their cars because they had leins against them more than they were worth. The bank took them. She was expecting all of this money and there wasn't any. My parents sent a list of what was received for life insurance and then what went out to pay off hospital bills, utility bills, credit cards and such, not to mention the funeral, itself, that was right around $10,000, even with the plot and marker already paid for. They never heard from her again, since my parents proved they were actually in the red and paid some stuff out of their pockets. Apparently she didn't want her half anymore, since it was money OWED and not money she would GET. How can people be that greedy?? I can't imagine being more worried about if and how much money I am going to get if my parents died. It makes me sick going thru and making a list of what we want when family dies. I know that everyone dies, but to me it's sad and I don'y want to think that hard about it, ya know? Do you have similar stories? Or do I have the only family that does this stuff?