The ties I have with the United States of America aren’t direct by way of my bloodline, but they’re close enough to have had me come into a sizeable inheritance. In our culture, normally someone like your grandmother’s brother doesn’t quite feature prominently in your life, in the way that “closer,” more direct relatives would, but in my case this grandfather figure never married and never really had a family of his own, so he was only too happy to be referred to as my grandfather.

We definitely called him grandpa, because that’s who he was…

So American granddad called regularly and would even make the effort to fly us over or pop over the Atlantic himself to come and visit, until he met his ultimate demise due to the after-effects of some health complications suffered, having worked in the nuclear weapons industry. Okay, so actually every indication was that his condition in relation to the hazardous environment he’d previously worked in was something he was managing pretty well, considering the age at which he passed on. Most people these days manage to live to old age, and live well, partly due to the improved conditions of many assisted living homes. They provide seniors with the means to live a fruitful life in their old age, not unlike the way my grandpa did. If you were to ask me I’d say that he died of old age, not as a result of the cancerous condition he’d actually managed to beat.

Thinking back, I actually don’t know, for sure, what his cause of death was. I just remember receiving the news that he died and that it was probably because of working in the nuclear weapons industry. While I didn’t know him as much as I would’ve liked to, I felt a deep sadness at his death. I longed to know more about him, and have since enjoyed researching the information on resources like https://www.genealogybank.com/explore/obituaries/all/usa/ohio/dayton/dayton-daily-news that not only told me about the life of my grandfather, but it had all the information about his death and funeral service too. He was a well-liked person and so I wasn’t surprised to hear that a lot of people had paid their final respects to him on his last journey.

His death didn’t leave me empty-handed in particular. I was fortunate enough to be listed as an heir to a very modest fortune he had, part of which was a lump-sum compensation package which he’d secured through United Energy Workers Healthcare. We’re talking here upwards of $100,000, a huge chunk of which I felt guilty about using to indulge in a guilty pleasure I have, which of course is fashion, as this blog suggests!

This would go on to make for the ultimate lesson in smart spending though, because as much as I did go on a spending spree, I bought wisely and as a result laid out some concrete ground on which to build some of the best content I continue to share on this blog.

The guilt very quickly gave way to an experience I’m now truly grateful for, because the big lesson learned was that of how to spend smartly, part of which entails spoiling yourself once in a while. Knowing granddad in any case, as much as that money was compensation for health complications suffered on the job, way back when, I truly believe that when he wrote me into his will and allocated that money to me specifically, he whispered the words “buy yourself something nice!”

Ever since then, however, I’ve made a habit of spending smartly. So to break it down as far as the fashion shopping spree goes, as much as I personally enjoy the items I bought myself, this allowed me to expand on the quality of the content of my blog and also give some great value to my loyal readers. It was more like an investment than a wild shopping spree, making the hard work and unfortunate circumstances my granddad had to endure account for the ultimate lesson in spending wisely.