Inheritance....

In August my siblings and I sold our parent's long-time home of thirty plus years.  In spite of the depressed housing market we had an offer within a week of putting the house on the market and through all the negotiations lo and behold the offer held and the house was sold.  I have a sneaking suspicion my mother in particular was behind the quick sale of the house.  She loved to write checks to her children.  They were small as my parents did not have much in material goods, but large considering that same fact.  Here was her last chance to write a dream check to each of her four children.  Again it's not a grandiose inheritance but considering the simplicity of their lives it is quite the accomplishment on their part and it is a significant contribution to each of us. 

The day after the closing my brother wrote an inheritance check for each of us as the executor of the estate.  (This little job I am sure he is happy to be rid of.  It's the equivalent of walking a tight rope in a circus act with a bowl of eggs on your head.)  I took the check to the bank and deposited it.  I put the deposit receipt on my desk and last night as I was clearing off and sorting through the unruly stack of whatever that had accumulated over the past month or so, I found the receipt.  I cannot throw it away.  It is sacred.  It represents so much more than the $$ amount printed in pale blue ink. I hold it in my hand and see my parents' sacrifices, the simplicity of their lives, the lack of hold that material possessions had on them.  I discern the love they had for each on of their children - each one unique and loved uniquely by them.   It represents their great charity and service to others.  Though they had little, what they did have was mostly shared with this or that person in need.  When they died there was little in their checking and savings accounts, their funerals were paid for, only a few medical bills were left and their house was the inheritance left for their children.  I wrote a note in a card and put the receipt inside and filed it away with my keepsakes.  Thank you Mother and Daddy.  I love you.