Glitch on Friend’s Will
A friend in her 70s just passed two weeks ago. She was a small business owner and had been planning and talking about who she would leave her shop to for years. There was an initial will made in 2022, but in 2025 she changed it slightly. There was a first draft of this revised will shared through google docs between her lawyer and I in which I was asked to make any necessary changes, as the lawyer was a friend of hers and not local.
On the first draft, there was one executor - the woman who would be co-owning the business with me. However, the future co-owner didn’t feel comfortable being the sole executor and asked that I also be added. That role isn’t something I was hoping for by any means, but I changed it to make sure she felt better. Then I printed the edited copy out for our business owner friend to take.
The day finally came when two separate witnesses and my friend’s husband went with her to a notary and had the will made official. I saw everyone a little later in the day and was given a copy of the new will now signed and notarized. When I received it, I looked it over and realized it was the first draft the lawyer had mailed to her rather than the edited version i had printed. I remember looking it over and being surprised, but I thought “oh well” - it was still one executor. One could probably do it easier.
A year goes by, and our friend passes unexpectedly in April. In the next few days that followed, future co-owner and I couldn’t find our own copies of the will anywhere. We were both shocked and starting to panic a little when our deceased friend’s husband couldn’t find the original. While all three of us were looking for some kind of evidence of the new will, I shared a copy of the one from google docs just so everyone could remember the info, but I told them - it says on this copy that there are two executors, but the one signed only has one. My friend, the executor, was surprised and worried since it was a responsibility she didn’t want on her own. I told her I would be as much help as I could, so she’d do fine.
Finally, on the third day after our friend’s unexpected death, her husband finally found the original and let us know so it could be picked up. When future co-owner/executor got it and filed it with the clerk’s office, she took a few copies and gave me one. The first thing she did was point out that I had been wrong - we were both named executors on the original will that was signed the previous year. I was in shock. I’m still in shock. Because I literally remember where I was standing, looking at my previous copy (that was now lost), feeling surprised and slightly worried about how the edited version with us both as executors had been forgotten and not used. But now both our names are on it with the signatures of every person who was there that day at the notary.
There is no explanation at all for this. I’m still shocked but have put it in the jar of strange, unexplained events from my life. I honestly shouldn’t be so surprised anymore when things this obvious happen.