(The Nationalist, 1999)
Many years ago The Dublin Opinion ran a cartoon of a TD on his death-bed leaving his farm to one child, his money to a second and to the third his seat in the Dáil. He was a good sensible man who should have been highly commended for making such careful provision for his family!
He made a will – and that was an intelligent thing to do. If more followed his example, a lot of unhappiness, quarrels, and even bitterness in families might be avoided. Doesn’t everyone know of some family where there have been serious arguments and lasting anger about the distribution of property? A lot of it might have been avoided if a will had been made with the help of a solicitor’s advice.
Why do people not do something that seems so obviously necessary? With young or middle-aged people, it seems to be that they feel death is a long way off and so there’s no need to think about the matter for a long time to come. It’s one of those situations where we let clichés do our thinking for us: ‘Don’t cross your bridges until you come to them’. The problem in this case is that no one can know when that particular bridge may need to be crossed. What about, ‘Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today?’
With elderly people the difficulty may be that they cannot bring themselves to face the hard fact that death is not far off. They don’t want to think about it, and that includes not thinking about anything associated with it, like a will or funeral arrangements.
Since the passing into law in 1965 of the Succession Act, which makes legal provision for people who die without having made a will, the situation is not anything like as bad as it used to be. But, allowing for that, doesn’t it make good sense for a person to make their own decisions in the matter than have the law do it for them, perhaps in a way that does not, indeed cannot, take account of the differing needs and situations of a particular family?
Quarrels over the property of a deceased person are nothing new. Over 750 years ago, Saint Francis of Assisi, a man who was a peace-maker in his time, laid down that those who wished to join his fraternity as members of what came to be called the Third Order should make a will. It was good advice.