Posted on 08/29/2007 7:10:57 AM PDT by COUNTrecount
Those grandkids should write a tell-all book and cash in. Remember the line at the end of the movie “Mommie Dearest” when someone commented to Christina Crawford that Joan always got the last word (after Christina learned she was left out of the will)? Christina’s response, “Does she?”
She may have been a nasty, unhappy old woman but she must have thought she had reasons for what she did. This thread is becoming more DUish by the post. Sheesh!
Hope they do cash in ...
I just read online that she didn't go to one of their weddings because they married a Catholic and she was Jewish.
early Klingon or Romulan...
Left the cap off the toothpaste once when they were visiting? Drank directly from the milk carton?
She left 12 million to a freakin' dog....she was out of her mind....it could have been ANYTHING that set her against the kids.
Quote of the year by some freeper (can’t recall who): “Hillary Clinton, the Leona Helmsley of politics.”
Why?
OK
This woman was jaw dropping cruel, and people defending her don't know much about her past behaivor.
Leaving the dog 12 million is within her rights, she has so much money - but the cruelty of how she treated her son's survivor's -even in death-is shameful.
.
I didn't know her, though based on reports of her behavior she didn't seem to be a very nice person. Over the years, I've learned that lots of what is true isn't reported, and lots of what is reported isn't true. But let's assume for the moment that she wasn't exactly the world's most loveable person.
So what?
Do YOU know how her grandkids treated her? Maybe they didn't want to know her, didn't so much as call her for her birthday, didn't show up for Harry's funeral - or maybe all they ever did was show up to ask Grandma for lots of money for drugs, etc. Who knows (except them, as she said in her will)? They undoubtedly did something (or failed to do something) to so piss her off that they got cut out of the will.
Tough beans. Merely being someone's grandchild gives you no rights to an inheritance - not legally and not morally. Maybe (probably) Leona was a bitch on wheels - but she was still a human being with feelings of her own, feelings that were undoubtedly hurt by these 2 kids - either that, or she thought that the money would be utterly wasted by them, or that it would ruin their lives.
As for the dog getting the money - yeah, that makes for a great headline. But let's look a bit deeper, shall we? The money is undoubtedly in trust, with the dog to be cared for out of the income ($600K/yr. at 5%) and principal (which won't be touched, trust me). Her brother gets the money when the dog dies. She loved the dog and wanted it cared for - and it will be. She also loved her brother and wanted to provide for him - and she has, in spades. He'll undoubtedly get a monthly fee as Trustee of the Dog Trust, plus significantly more than $12 million when the dog dies. I don't see anything wrong with structuring things that way (though I can't imagine doing the same for myself).***
...as well as two of four grandchildren from her late son Jay Panzirer - so long as they visit their father's grave site once each calendar year.
Otherwise, she wrote, neither will get a penny of the $5 million she left for each.
She undoubtedly loved her son, and wanted to try to make sure that her grandkids paid him some respect every year. More to the point, going to the cemetery to pay respects to the dead makes you a better person, and I'm sure that Leona thought that doing it for enough years might actually help her grandkids be better people. Besides, for $5 million, I'll go to the other side of the planet once a year to put flowers on a grave and take a picture with that day's newspaper while standing next to the stone.
It is WAY too easy to call someone, particularly a dead someone, a bitch. Neither you nor I nor all but a very, very few people really know the facts, so maybe we should not judge too quickly or too harshly...because what comes around, goes around.
***There's an acquaintance of mine (let's call him Charlie) in NJ who was in a similar position to Leona's brother. Charlie's much older friend, whom he had cared for over several years, died, and left a $50,000 trust for his cat (and nothing to Charlie directly). Charlie was the Trustee for the duration of the cat's life, and the beneficiary when it died. As Charlie said to me once, "You know, if I was a different kind of person the cat and I would've had an appointment with the bathtub within a couple of weeks of my friend's passing - but he knew that I'm not that kind of person. I honored his wishes to care for the cat, and it ate and got better medical care than I did." There was over $70,000 in the Trust when the cat died years later - and Charlie thinks that his friend was very wise and compassionate to do things that way.
>she was incredibly cruel to people who worked for her<
So, if your boss was a jerk what’s stopping you from quitting? Slavery was done for quite a while ago in this country.
I don’t know squat about the woman but I do know that her money was hers to do with as she chose.
Who is telling you what to do with your money? Can your children demand that you do what they say with it? If they can then it’s not yours, is it?
I donno about those grandchildren. you know the saying, the apple doesn’t drop far from the tree. We may be defending the really awful players in this little family drama. After all, if the two disinherited grandchildren weren’t good enough for the Queen of Mean to like them, maybe they weren’t all that nice to begin with.
Possibly. But she didn't treat them all that way. Do you know the whole story? I don't. I'm not defending her, just saying that the level of vitriol could be toned down a little.
Most reputations are well earned.
hopefully they’ll write a book about Grandma ! lol
Perhaps you should pull your head out of your ass.
The dog did nothing wrong.
(sorry, animal abuse like that just isn’t funny and it’s not very ‘right’ nor Reaganesque of you)
lol
How did I guess that? No one would defend her so vigorously if they knew anything about her.
No one said she couldn't do whatever she wanted with her money, she always did.
you're funny! lol
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