Maria’s Treasure
June 1, 2006
Times and Seasons has a wonderful story about one woman’s treasure.
Maria, a seventy-five-year-old widow, member of our tiny Mormon branch, had asked me to meet her at a Notary’s office. She wanted me to be the executor of her will. I reluctantly agreed, remembering the council of a friend to avoid that kind of responsibility. But since I was the branch president …
Her desire was simple: after her death, what she owned was for the Church. The Notary had made up the papers. From behind a majestic desk in his baroque office, he read us the document where words like “inasmuch” and “notwithstanding” and “within the boundaries of the law” created intricate sentences, worthy of the environment. Maria and I looked at him as if we understood everything, then signed. Two bored clerks joined as witnesses.
I appreciated Maria’s gesture, but I admit I did not pay much attention to the matter, because I thought she was not wealthy.
Read on …
