My Relatives Laughed at the Inheritance I Got from Grandpa — But They Didn’t Know I’d Have the Last Laugh

youngest of eight grandchildren. Unlike the others, I never gave a second thought to his money.

I just loved being around him, but little did I know that my love for him would one day pay off.

While all my relatives had busy lives and big plans, I was the one who showed up every weekend like clockwork to spend time with my grandfather. I genuinely enjoyed his company and would even go as far as calling him my best friend.

Grandpa Thomas and I filled our time together playing chess, or sometimes I cooked us dinner from his old recipe cards. I even sat patiently as he retold the same war stories, ones I could probably recite better than he could.

My cousins mocked me for it.

“You’re wasting your Saturdays,” one would text. “He probably won’t even remember next week,” another messaged once, with a laughing emoticon for added measure. But I didn’t care.

Grandpa Thomas mattered to me.

The rest of the family, even his own children, saw him as a relic of the past, a stubborn old man stuck in his ways. They only showed up for the big holidays, took photos for social media, and then disappeared.

I remember Christmas two years ago, my cousin Travis asking him, loud enough for everyone to hear, “So, Grandpa, are we still in the will?” They all laughed. I didn’t.

That was something they often asked him when they made appearances, but Grandpa never responded.

He just gave them a look that said, “Stop it.” In hindsight, maybe it also conveyed, “You’ll regret this one day.”

So when we gathered for the reading of Grandpa Thomas’ will, everyone leaned in, their smiles wide with anticipation. It was held in his old lawyer, Winslow’s office. He was a gray-haired man who still typed on a clunky IBM keyboard.

There was tension in the air, like the room was holding its breath.

Each of his four children, my mom included, and all seven of my cousins received $200,000!Continue reading…