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A Client’s Story: Our Family Tore Apart When My Dad Passed Away

Announcement posted by Platinum Lawyers Sydney 17 Jul 2017

It was the year 2014 when our dad was diagnosed with a brain tumor. It struck us all as a shock. Our dad had been healthy most of his life. He was active even in his later years and never catered any unhealthy habits. Just before he was diagnosed with brain tumor, he started experiencing chronic headaches along with mild short term memory loss. It was a painful sight for all of us and my mother was affected the most. They told us that Dad had around 4 months to live. His doctors also warned us about how his health will be deteriorating day by day.

These last 4 months that we had left with Dad, we were going to make the most of it. When our dad was healthy, he was the head of the household. He handled all financial and family matters, mostly by himself, and our mother liked it that way. He always made sure that everything was fairly being divided between me and my other two brothers. In his last few months, we had no time to talk about any of it. Instead, we made sure he was cared for. We talked to him about the good times we had spent together. Recalled memories of our family being together which always brought a smile to his face. But with his health going down, we never got the time to discuss his wishes about what he wanted to do with things to his name that will be left after he’d leave us.

Just with a month left, the lawyer sent me a copy of dad’s Will. It was a poorly drafted will which named only my mother and me as his beneficiaries. My siblings did not like the idea of that, but I told them I would talk to dad about it. The next time I visited dad, I tried bringing it up but his health didn’t allow me to bring up such stuff and frankly he wasn’t in a state to address to the matter.

It made me feel very guilty that I never thought about asking Dad about his wishes with what he want to do with what he will leave behind. He was a family man and would have appreciated discussing it, but by now it was too late. After dad passed away, his old Will caused a major argument in the family. My siblings were not okay with the fact that nothing was given to them, as our dad would have done if he was healthy. While my mother later distributed everything fairly, because it wasn’t given to them by Dad’s Will, they always assumed she was hiding some assets from them.

It tore our family apart and we are barely in contact with each other anymore. It was sad to see what happened to our family.

Having such a traumatic experience with this, I decided to create my own Will even though I’m only 34. Who knows when it’s your time to go…

If you care about your parent’s wishes (or your own), I suggest you try to talk to them about this matter and get it over with while they are healthy. Talk to your family today and get their final wishes in order. If you need assistance in drafting a Will, there are expert family lawyers that can help you.  

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