Hospice Gets £20,000 from a Mother Harassed by Her Daughters

A hospice in UK is richer by 20,000 pound sterling, thanks to the ungrateful ways of two daughters. Their mother, aghast at their relentless attempts to evict her from her home, has bequeathed the money to the hospice.

Megan Swanston, who died last December aged 85, was embroiled in a two-year legal battle with her daughters in the mid-1990s.

The dispute started in 1994 when her daughters tried to evict the then-70-year-old from her home in Oldham, Greater Manchester.

Mrs Swanston had lived at the address with her husband Willie, a former lieutenant commander in the Royal Navy, for years before his death in 1993.

But the house belonged to Willie’s father who willed it to Mrs.Swanston’s two daughters Valerie Hunter, then 50, Lorraine Talbot, then 48 and a shoe shop manager, and Elaine Nixon, then 40.

Initially the daughters told their mother she could continue to live there, perhaps for the rest of her life, but a year later, they wanted her to move out for they wanted to sell it away.

A letter from daughter Elaine Nixon, dated 14 March 1994, begins 'Dear Mother' and threatens eviction unless she co-operates and allows them to sell the house.

Selfishness, Greed and Family Breakdown Characterize Present-day "Social Evils"
A new study projects selfishness, greed and family breakdown as present-day "social evils".

It ends: 'Whilst we do not wish for any unpleasantness whatsoever, please be in no doubt that we will do whatever is legally necessary to obtain what is rightfully ours, with or without your approval.'

And sue her they did, but eventually reached an out-of-court settlement in 1996.

Two years later, in 1998, the daughters sold the house to a property company for £60,000 on the basis that their mother could remain as the sitting tenant.

However, Mrs Swanston has now had the last laugh.

Through her will she has instructed that nothing should go to her children. Instead, she has left all of her £20,000 estate to Dr Kershaw's Hospice, in Royton, Oldham.

Mrs Swanston died on December 4 last year. Her last message to her daughters was revealed when her final will and testament went to probate, James Tozer reported for Daily Mail.

Source-Medindia
GPL/L