This episode is quite the adventure! We return to our telling of Sarita Kenedy East’s philanthropic legacy just after her death, and we learn that Sarita’s problem is not the lack of a will. Instead, it’s the opposite. Sarita has 2 wills, and the presence of multiple wills leads to nearly 20 years of court battles and frozen assets.

Written in 1948, Sarita’s first will leaves the bulk of her inheritance to the Diocese of Corpus Christi and the Oblate Fathers, but it also gives some small portions of wealth to family members. In the last decade of Sarita’s life, however, she meets and befriends a Trappist monk named Brother Leo. Sarita and Brother Leo forge a close friendship, and they travel the Americas and make plans to use Sarita’s wealth to fund Brother Leo’s missions. Sarita writes a new will in 1960, less than a year before her death, and she leaves all of her money to a foundation started by her, Brother Leo, and another friend, Peter Grace.

Needless to say, the beneficiaries of the 1948 will are displeased with the 1960 will, and they try to find ways to invalidate the later will. For nearly 2 decades, potential beneficiaries of both of Sarita’s wills try to stake their claims to the inheritance through court cases and appeals. Which side will prevail?

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Recommended reading:

"If You Love Me, You Will Do My Will" by Stephen Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth

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