There are just two if us in the family, my sister Kate and I, we are both in our 30s. Kate is married with two children and lives in a very cramped house 30 miles from Dublin. I am single and live in a comfortable flat, working in a job that I do not particularly enjoy.
Our widowed mother died last summer and in a recently made will, left by far the greater part of her estate to me. This as you can imagine has caused great bad feeling.
If I were to be very honest I think that mother did not love either of us, she was constantly critical of us both and I believe she created bad feeling between us. Certainly Kate and I were driven apart rather than brought together.
Even in my mother's illness she managed to let each of us know how unsatisfactory the other was. She also spoke at length about her dislike for Kate's husband and his gambling habit which she regarded as an addiction.
Once the terms of the will were known, Kate's husband (whom I always disliked but have never shown this) behaved in an extraordinary fashion.
He has accused me of turning our mother against him and Kate, he has repeated hurtful things which my mother may well have said about me. But mainly he has demanded that I give Kate an equal share of the estate. Otherwise he and Kate will make a Section 117 application to the courts to prove that our mother acted unfairly and unjustly. He has also said that if I have any hope of keeping up a relationship with my two little nieces, I should act quickly in this matter.
My sister Kate says she wants to keep out of it so that she and I don't have to have a confrontation, but that she wants me to know that she sides with her husband in all this.
His behaviour and urgency makes me feel that my mother may have been right about his gambling addiction, after all she had made a will well after Kate's marriage. She had also given me no indication whatsoever that I was to be the main beneficiary.
Part of me thinks that justice, equality and above all the hope of preserving a sense of family all mean I should agree. But another part so bitterly resents this presumptive action and hostility that I don't want to be forced and pushed into this position.
And if I give the money with a bad grace because I have been threatened, then I might as well not give it all. What do you think?