“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Thank you, Mr. Douglas.”
Yvonne spoke with the deep Mississippi accent that she hadn’t managed to lose in the five years she’d been in Atlanta.
Yvonne was born and raised in Cold Water Mississippi. The oldest of nine children, Yvonne was an average student in her junior year in High School. She met Richard Haggler when she was sixteen years old. Richard was twenty-eight. Richard was born in Cold Water as well, but his family moved away when he was ten. He came back to town to settle some personal matters for his recently deceased mother. When he met Yvonne, he fell deeply in love with the pretty young girl.
Two weeks later, he asked Yvonne to marry him. When Yvonne accepted, Richard sought her mother’s permission to marry Yvonne and take her back to Atlanta with him. Her father had died three years earlier and her mother was having problems making it by herself with nine children. Yvonne’s mother had known Richard’s family when they lived in Cold Water and he seemed nice enough, polite, and respectful, and Yvonne did like him.
Richard had a good job and promised that he could make a better life for Yvonne in Atlanta. Cold Water was a small town and her mother didn’t have any money to send her daughter to college, and began to see this as an opportunity for her daughter to get away from there. Richard also promised he would be able to send her some money every week to help out with the family. After very long and deep consideration, her mother consented for her daughter to be married.
They were married in a simple wedding a week later. And that night they left for Atlanta. They moved into Richard’s mother’s old house in Clarkston, a suburb of Atlanta. Richard was an old-fashioned man and insisted that Yvonne not work. He told her she didn’t have to finish high school if she didn’t want to, but Yvonne felt it was important that she be the first in her family to graduate from high school.
Other than going to school, she lived a quiet, somewhat sheltered life as a housewife. She had a few girl friends that she met in school, but Richard thought it was inappropriate for a married woman to be going to nightclubs and things like that, so Yvonne made a very happy life for her and her husband. She was totally dependent upon Richard for everything. She didn’t mind, even though they didn’t have much money, Richard was a good man and he treated her like a queen.
“Richard left a ten thousand dollar insurance policy and I gave it to the funeral people to pay for his funeral. Well, my husband was a simple man and I thought he’d want to go out that way. The whole thing came to a little less than seven thousand dollars. They told me that they would take care of things with the insurance company and I’d get whatever was left over.”
“That’s pretty standard.”
“But I still haven’t got the money.”
“Was there some problem with the policy?” Marcus asked as he took notes.
“I don’t know, they wasn’t telling me nothing. Every time I called to find out what was going on they told me it would just be a few more days. Until two days ago.” Yvonne reached in her purse and pulled out an envelope. She took out the letter and handed it to Marcus. “I got this in the mail. They said I could get my money after I signed it.”
Marcus read over the letter while Yvonne continued talking. He glanced up at her and smiled. There was an innocence about her. She spoke without making eye contact. He thought that her accent was adorable.
“I showed that letter to my girlfriend, Tyisha. Her mama died last year, and she said she didn’t have to sign nothing like this. She told me I should show it to a lawyer.”
“Well, Mrs. Haggler, even though it doesn’t come right out and say so, this letter is worded to give them power of attorney to settle your husbands estate.”
“Estate? What estate, Mr. Douglas? Like I said we’re simple people, we got the house his mama left us. The house is paid for, but other than that, we ain’t got nothing.”
“It does seem a bit unusual to need power of attorney to settle an insurance policy. Have you spoken with the insurance company?”
“No, I just came to see you. Do you think I should sign it, Mr. Douglas?”
“No, Mrs. Haggler. I don’t recommend you sign anything until you get some more information about why this is necessary. Would you like me to look into this for you, Mrs. Haggler?”
&nb
sp; “Would you please, Mr. Douglas. Richard used to handle all the business for us. I’m not very good at talking to people like that.”
“I would be happy to, Mrs. Haggler.”
“Don’t have much money. I been getting by on what money was in the checking account. But I just got a job at Walmart and I’m not making that much.”
Marcus smiled at her as he got up and showed her to the door. “Don’t worry about that now, Mrs. Haggler. For now all you need to do is see Janice before you leave. She has some paperwork for you to fill out. I’ll look into it and get back with you in a few days.”
Marcus was glad for something different to do. He had opened his own practice a year ago and dealt with the usual stuff. Accident cases, divorce, DUI’s, but it would be nice for a change to actually help somebody. He would do it pro bono if he had to. Marcus checked with the insurance company, and as he suspected, they informed him that they were waiting to receive power of attorney from her representative in order to settle Mrs. Haggler’s claim.
As it turned out, although Yvonne and Richard lived a simple life, in their simple, paid for home in Clarkston, it wasn’t because they didn’t have any money. Richard not only left her a ten thousand-dollar policy, there was also one for two hundred and fifty thousand. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. In addition to the insurance policies, there was a trust fund he had set up for her to receive once she turned thirty, worth another three hundred thousand. He also owned a number of properties in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. Marcus estimated his estate to be worth well over a million dollars.
A week later, Marcus called Yvonne and asked her to drop by his office that day to discuss her case. She told him she was working that day and asked if he would mind staying late until she got off.
“It’s my first job and I don’t want to lose it.”
He started to tell her that she could quit if she wanted to. But he didn’t want to tell her over the phone that she might stand to inherit quite a bit of money. Yvonne arrived at the office a little after seven thirty.