Alicia Daniel

I filled out all of the necessary paperwork and found out that there is a waiting list for radiology but they said I could take all of my electives, Englishes, and other classes until I finally can get into the actual radiology curriculum.  A lot of the electives are offered online too.  That’s wonderful.  Even if I can’t get into it very soon, I could still take classes that I might be interested in anyway like Spanish so I could help more people by being able to speak Spanish.

Charlie, there must be a very special place in Heaven for people like you.  I only wish I could thank you personally but I know the best way to do that is to honor what you have done for my kids and I by taking this opportunity and making something wonderful for my children and I.

I have to admit I hate my job.  I have to work nights sometimes and weekends almost all of the time.  Holidays, well most of them too.  That’s the worst part of working retail.  My mother is a nurse and she has wanted me to go to college to be a nurse like her for as long as I can remember.  She says that she’ll always be able to find a good paying job somewhere no matter what the economy does.  She’s right too but I’m just not the nurse type. It takes a special person to be a nurse and I’m not that person at all.

I have decided to check into being a radiologist.  I could do x-rays.  They get paid good too.  Charlie fixed it so that I could go to college and he would pay for it so tomorrow I’ll go by the local college and see what I have to do to get into that program.  I’m also going to be checking online to see if I can do it online.  That would be great if I could take it online.  I think some of the courses are online at the local college anyway but we shall see.

I decided that I needed to go to see the lawyer today.  The last thing I want to do is lose the money Charlie left us or blow it on stupid things.  I need to know what is expected of me to keep the money coming in and not make bad decisions that would lose any of the money.  I have never had much of anything so I have to be careful.  In other words, I need financial advice.  When the lawyer was reading the will, I was more or less in shock and most of what he said went in one ear and out the other.  Well I had him to sit down and explain it to me again and make sure I fully understood.

From what I got out of what the lawyer said today, I get so much a month to take care of the kids and I.  The kids each have a trust fund for college that they will get if they go to college to pay for college.  If they don’t go to college, then they don’t get the money until they are 25 years old and then they get a monthly allowance more or less to help them get a start.  When the kids are all moved out, I get to stay in the house but if I decide to move, then the house is sold and the money divided between the kids and I and it goes into our respective trust funds.

If something should happen that I would need a lump sum of money say for medical reasons, then there is a fund set up for that too and I can get the money through the lawyer with proof.  Charlie thought of everything and made sure that none of us would ever want for anything again.  The monthly allowance I get, I can spend it on myself and the kids or I could save some if I wanted.  All of the household bills are taken care of so there’s no reason why I couldn’t save some of it for a rainy day.

Well I have pinched myself a hundred times and nothing has changed so I must not be dreaming.  Today we’re moving into Papa Charlies house.  It’s a beautiful 4 bedroom brick home, not just a house.  Each room is decorated beautifully and we are going to leave it just as Papa Charlie had it.  The children are so excited that they will each have their own bedroom.

We have a chance at a new life now.  We struggled so hard for so long that I’m not sure how to act right now.  I keep thinking I’m going to wake up and it’s all going to just be a dream or someone is going to come in and say ‘There’s been a mistake, get out.’  I guess it will take me awhile to settle in and believe it’s all real.

I have paid off everything I owed with my monthly allowance because everything was paid up in full until the middle of next month and I’ll get my allowance the beginning of each month.  Plus I still have my job and will keep it until I decide what I want to go to college for and start classes.  Just because we have been given this wonderful gift, I’m not going to relax and blow it, that’s for sure.  That would be almost like spitting in Charlies face and I’m not about to do that.

We buried Papa Charlie on the 7th.  I had no idea that he was a Korean war veteran but he was.  They draped a flag over his coffin and did the 21 gun salute to him too.  The children are heart broken.  It’s the first time they have really had to deal with death now that they are old enough to really understand.  The first time was when  the baby I had that died  4 years ago and that was a tough one too.

On the 8th I got a phone call from Papa Charlies lawyer.  He asked me to come in for the reading of the will.  I was totally confused because why would I have to be there?  I had only known the man for a couple months.  When I got there, I was the only one there other than the lawyer.  I didn’t know that Papa Charlie didn’t have any other family at all.  We were all he had.

Then the lawyer read the will.  I almost went into shock.  I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing.  Papa Charlie was sort of a wealthy man and left everything to my children and I.  He had college funds set up for each of my children.  He gave us his house and set up enough money in a trust fund to pay the taxes, homeowners insurance and anything that needed fixing for the rest of my life.  Then the house goes to the kids and would be sold and divided between all of them.

He also set up a college fund for me so I could quit work and go to college and be able to take care of myself and the children.  I was to get a monthly ‘allowence’ also to cover food, utilities and anything else that we needed.  I’m still trying to let all of this soak in.  All of this from a gentle, kind man that we only knew for a few months.  I feel so honored.  God Bless you Charlie Benson!!!!