I won't name names in this story, but it's a interesting lesson in the things that occur when "the kids" are left in charge of the house.
A divorced lady lived in one of the ranchers in Magnolia with 3 of her 4 daughters, all over 18 years of age. Finally a portion of the lady's anatomy became cancerous. Her battle with the deadly disease was unsuccessful. After she passed away, the oldest, non-resident daughter called me in to assist with the estate.
Mostly, there was no estate. Just a big pile of unpaid bills on the dining room table, left unpaid by the daughters while their mom lay in her hospital bed. As I sorted through the bills -- $20 for this, $90 for that, $50 for this, $75 for that -- I came upon the New Jersey Water bill. It was for $6,700 !!!
I said, "$6,700 !!! HOW DID YOU LADIES RUN UP A WATER BILL LIKE THAT WHILE YOUR MOM WAS IN THE HOSPITAL ???!!! YOU HAVE NO SWIMMING POOL !!!"
The ladies were crying, because they knew the consequences -- after the Surrogate's fees, lawyer's fees and administrator's commission, bills get paid before heirs get anything. "WE DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED, PETER !!!" they exclaimed.
I said, "Let me go to the bathroom and then I'll try to figure this out."
I walked down the hall to the bathroom, opened the door -- and found the toilet running, running, running. "Well," I thought, "There's the answer ! $6,700 went down the hopper while mom was in the hospital !"
I took the top off the water box portion of the toilet, flushed the toilet, and saw that the chain to the flush valve seat got hung-up every time.
"How long has the toilet been running like that ?" I asked as I came out of the bathroom.
"Oh," one of the girls said casually, "It started that as soon as mom went into the hospital. That's alright, isn't it? The water just goes in a big circle, right ?"
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