Charlotte was to the manor born, lived that way until her father gambled the family down from mansion to middle-income home to shanty, until her third marriage was to a poor dirt farmer and factory worker. But Charlotte knew her mother was frugal and crafty, so figured her mother had squirreled away as much or more than what her father had squandered. All she had to do was wait for her mother to die, and she would inherit the hidden fortune. Such hope kept her alive, but not long enough

On her deathbed, Charlotte asked her mother how much she would have inherited should she have outlived her mother. Her mother told her “millions”. And next Saturday, Charlotte’s mother went to confession, asked the priest to grant her absolution for having lied to her daughter on the daughter’s deathbed. She prayed that if her daughter were in heaven that maybe the angels would be kind and not say a word about material wealth. But then she reflected that if her daughter went to the other place, well, the devil was brutally honest. Not much could be done about that.

– Edward Supranowicz