You inherit a lighthouse
'The only thing you inherit from me are my leather slippers,' my father said. 'I started with nothing, so you can too.' The last thing I want from him are those slippers! Every year he received a new pair, with which he did not hesitate to deliver a good beating, whether or not on my mother's orders.
The interesting thing is that he didn't start with nothing. He married a millionaire's daughter, and when he no longer needed her, he traded her in for a coal miner's wife. When she had had enough of him, he moved on to another woman who owned real estate. I have no idea what they saw in him, for he was definitely a womaniser, certainly not the rock you can build on, but rather a man of empty promises, taking advantage of others and seeing himself as the centre of the universe. He would proudly tell how women did everything for him; even when he was at school or in the Japanese internment camp, people fell for his charms. There was nothing to be proud of, let alone the many he abused for his own gain and the traces he left behind.
Fortunately, he is dead, and frankly, the man who once stood on a pedestal with me as a small child fell hard from it. Small children may be loyal for a while, but they are certainly not blind.
Is there anything left to inherit, except for those slippers with which he beat children from the first family black and blue, while those from the second family actually hit the parents? That would certainly have been an interesting study for The Nanny.
Not on my father's side, and that is excellent. I shudder at the thought of being saddled with a tangible reminder of a selfish, emotionless person. And as for my mother: she has, in all likelihood, sold the properties long ago. Being a landlord isn't that much fun. You constantly have to pump money into it and listen to a lot of moaning. The average tenant is also far from careful with other people's belongings, let alone hygiene.
Besides apartments, houses, shops, and factories, there was no lighthouse among my grandfather's possessions. A pity, because I would have loved to live in one, or in a windmill. The latter seems incredibly practical to me, especially in times of energy scarcity. So, there will never be a letter from a solicitor stating, 'You inherit a lighthouse.' Nor any other letter, because I have a secret address.
13-3-2026
Prompt: see title
source photo
The fact that you can look back today and call things what they were shows strength. The real legacy is not the slippers, the property or the lack thereof, but the freedom to build your own life differently. And sometimes it is the people who have not received much who manage to create the most meaning for the future.
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I turned my back on material possessions. If I’d accepted them, I would have had to pay an immense price for them, and I wasn’t prepared to do that. There was a reason I left home at the age of 15. I’ve always called a spade a spade, which didn’t go down well. Denying who you are is worse than living in poverty. My life is different, but it’s hard to say whether I built it up or whether circumstances did.
I don’t think I’m particularly concerned about the future. And the rest? I think that’s Generation X, who mainly looked after themselves and rolled up their sleeves. Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts. I really appreciate it.
Unfortunately, sometimes life presents us with difficult choices and forces us to walk paths we did not plan, but they are what build us as people. Each person has their own path and a price for the decisions they make. I wish you strength, peace, and many more moments in which you find meaning in the path you are on. Thank you for sharing your thoughts here :)
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@wakeupkitty
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It's interesting to inherit a lighthouse.
Inheritance is a word that evokes mixed feelings in some people; in fact, some don't have much patience and will do anything to make it happen faster.