Old Lady Pretends to Be Dead to Determine Her Heir among Her Children — Story of the Day

An old woman with estranged kids decides to pull a nasty prank on them to see who was worthy enough to inherit her wealth.

Agatha Stones was dying, and she knew it. The 83-year-old was a woman who had given birth to four kids before her husband Rodney passed away.

However, those kids had all become adults and moved away from home to start their own lives. It was something Agatha should have been proud of, but she felt the opposite way.

This was because all of her kids had become mostly interested in material things alone at the expense of important emotions like love. In their pursuit of money, they had lost most of their humanity.

Agatha had taught them upright qualities including kindness, love, sympathy, and empathy in their childhood but none of all that mattered in the face of money — the commodity they sought to own.

In addition to that, all four of her children always forgot to call her. At least that's what they told her each time she confronted them.

"Business has been a lot, mom," the eldest, Brian, would say.

"It totally slipped my mind but I was going to call to see how you were," the second oldest, Sally, would say.

John and Mary, the twins who were both working in the same field as journalists, would give an excuse or the other about busy work schedules and overseas jobs.

Brian and Sally were both in their 50s with families of their own so if business wasn't keeping them away, they had a lot of responsibilities.

But Agatha wished they would at least give her the opportunity to spend more time with her grandkids. Sally had two kids and Brian had one.

John and Mary were in their late 30s and were yet to settle down. It worried her they both seemed unconcerned by how fast time was flying but she knew they did not appreciate her bringing it up.

Agatha was well aware that each of her kids was only trying to build a good career for themselves, and she hoped that they would still be good and kind men and women who would go through life with only positive qualities in their hearts.

Still, it hurt the woman that none of her four kids deigned to even visit her for the sake of seeing her and catching up on missed time.

One day, she was ranting about it to her friend Sharon. "I just don't understand why these kids don't want to return home to spend time with me, " she said. "And they have seemingly important excuses so I don't know how to reason with them."

"Is that what is eating you up?" her friend asked.

"I know they have always been like that but it has become even more obvious now and my lawyer has asked that I write my will," Agatha replied sadly.

"I take it that's a bad thing?" Sharon asked.

"Yes, it is," Agatha said. "I have no idea how I'll share the little I have among all four of my kids, then there's the little issue of knowing exactly who deserves it too."

"I know what you can do to determine that," Sharon proudly said.

"Let's hear it," Agatha said grudgingly before her neighbor and friend offered her an insidious plan.

A couple of days later, Agatha suddenly fell ill and was hospitalized due to an alleged heart attack. Despite that, nothing changed, and none of her four kids visited her.

A few more days down the line, all four children received a message stating that Agatha had passed on. Within hours, they all arrived at their mother's home to discuss how they would share the inheritance.

"Will you guys give all that a rest and focus on what has brought us all together — the death of our beloved mother!" the youngest daughter, Mary, shouted at some point.

There was a brief pause at her outburst, but as soon as the silence was broken by a phone buzzing, they returned to dividing up their mom's wealth.

Unknown to them, Agatha's friend, Sharon, was listening in on their conversation and, after waiting a few minutes, walked into the living room where they all sat, to tell them it was time to say their final goodbyes to their mother.

The eldest, Brian, went first. But as he entered, he did not see a coffin, but he did see his mother, and unlike what they had been told, she was alive and well.

She told him about her friend's plan, but Brian failed to see the point of pulling such an extreme prank. Agatha told him a few encouraging things and about how happiness could exist without money.

After their talk, she asked him to leave the room but not tell anyone about what had happened. The same situation was repeated with the first daughter, Sally, and then with John, who came out weeping.

At that point, Mary, who had not been able to get anything out of her siblings after they exited the room, began to suspect that something was amiss.

When she walked into the room and saw her mom alive and well, she screamed in happiness and ran into her arms. "I thought we lost you," she sobbed. "How is this happening?"

She was shocked and glad that her mother was alive and it showed Agatha that Mary was the one who had enough sadness regarding her demise.

"If I had to quickly determine the person who will receive all my properties, it would be Mary," Agatha told them later.

"But I believe in you all, so I hope that this has really taught you a lesson." Nobody answered for the longest time as they thought about how terrible their past actions had been. "Because I believe in your ability to change, I will make sure to divide the inheritance equally between all of you."

That day turned the lives of all four children around, and they started to call more often and visit Agatha on the weekends.

When the holidays came, they celebrated as a big and happy family, making Agatha very proud. The old woman died 15 years later, and as promised, her wealth was divided up between all the children.

Sometime later, Agatha's children reached a joint decision to honor their mother by using her wealth to fund the building of a shelter where less fortunate people could come together to celebrate the holidays.

What did we gain from this story?

• Sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures. Agatha resorted to Sharon's plan when she saw no way to solve the problem of her estrangement from her kids. It worked like a charm, bringing them together faster than Agatha's budding frustration could have done.
• Family is important. Agatha wanted nothing more than the opportunity to spend more time with her kids because she knew that she was not going to be around forever. She just wanted to make enough memories to take with her, and who better to make them with than her flesh and blood.

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If you enjoyed this story, you might like this one about a man who fakes his death to secretly take care of his ailing mother.

This account is inspired by our reader's story but written by a professional writer. All names have been changed to protect identities and ensure privacy. Share your story with us; maybe it will change someone's life. If you would like to share your story, please send it to info@amomama.com.