Mother always loved you best.

摘要

As the decade of the 1960s waned and the war in Vietnam became a vivid reality on home TV sets, our children were in their teens, our oldest son subject to the draft. Tense times. So when the family gathered each week to watch "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour," we relaxed and laughed as Tommy whined to brother Dick: Mom always loved you best. It would be 20 years before this phrase lost its comedic value and became both a personal and professional concern. As my mother reached her 80s, she spoke more often about the wisdom of her estate plan. She had assets of about Dollars 300,000, which she planned to leave to her three children in equal shares. But she returned to the subject time and again, concerned that one of my brothers, who took pride in his nonmaterialistic ways, would give his share away and not preserve it for his family. A trust had been suggested. But would he feel less loved, be resentful? Yet was it not the wisest course? Back and forth. She changed her mind many times, finally opting for the trust.