After Alice

Chapter 17: Great Aunt Gertrude

Liv, 1996

After Ricky left, Liv went upstairs to her bedroom and pulled out the handful of letters she had taken from the trunk to examine them again. One was from lawyers to Mary Ellen Rigley and Mims, concerning the inheritance of their Great Aunt Gertrude's estate. Liv had read this letter several times, but the legal language had been confusing. This time, she focused on part of the letter halfway down the page when both Mims and Mary Ellen Rigley's names appeared.

According to the will of the Deceased, the Trustee allows the release of funds from a generation-skipping trust to be bequeathed to the Deceased's two beneficiaries, Miss Mary Ellen Rigley and Miss Mary Ellen O'Malley. This trust holds the remaining financial assets of the Deceased's estate in safekeeping until such time that the beneficiaries have reached thirty years of age and their mother, Mrs. Alice Murphy O'Malley, has died. As these requirements have been satisfied, the funds are to be distributed to each beneficiary under the instructions of the will of the Deceased: three-fourths to Miss Rigley, and one-fourth to Miss O'Malley.

Liv puzzled over this paragraph. Why didn't Gertrude want her grandnieces to get their inheritance right away after she died? And why had she split the money so unevenly between them? Was she mad at Mims for something?

Liv wondered if Mims held a grudge against her half-sister for the unfair way her great aunt had treated them. But then again, what if Mary Ellen Rigley had actually been worse off than Mims? Maybe her father had left her too, or died, and they had kicked her between foster homes all her life? Then, Liv reasoned, she deserved every penny she got, and more. Perhaps this generation-skipping trust was their great aunt's way of rectifying past wrongs.

With these questions circling in her mind, Liv picked up the cream-colored envelope that was the last in the stack. This was her favorite item. Tucked inside was a greeting card and a small black-and-white photograph showing a family of four standing on the front steps of a brick church. There was a woman holding a baby in her arms, a man, and an older woman dressed in black with a veil. Inscribed on the back in pencil it said: Mary Ellen's Baptism - Alice, Mary Ellen, Robert, and Rachel Rigley, Troy, New York. Feb 17, 1946.

On the card was a printed announcement in curling script: Our Baby Mary Ellen Rigley, baptized on Sunday, February 17th, 1946 at Sacred Heart Church by Father Patrick Shaughnessy.

Liv looked at the picture for a long time. The man was Robert Rigley, Alice's first husband. He stood with his hand on Alice's shoulder, like he was holding her in place, and looked solemnly into the camera. A fedora hat shaded his eyes, and he wore a dark suit and tie. Alice had on a light-colored skirt and matching jacket. She had tucked her hair under a round hat and wore white gloves. Her shoulders caved in, like Mims's often did after a long day at work. Mary Ellen Rigley was in her arms, wearing a long white dress with a white bonnet and many frills around her neck and wrists. Her mouth opened wide. To cry or yawn, Liv couldn't tell. An old woman, who must have been Robert's mother, stood to the other side of him and came up to his shoulder. Her black dress and veil seemed to suggest she was in mourning.

Liv kept staring at the photograph, trying to make sense of it. How soon after this did everything fell apart? Alice didn't seem happy in this picture. Mims had told Liv several times that her mother hated and feared the Catholic Church. She never went to any services and was extremely skeptical of any religion. Mims considered herself an atheist, too.

From what Liv could decipher from the paperwork, Great Aunt Gertrude had been a very religious woman. If Alice had renounced the Church and raised Mims as an atheist, that had to have really pissed Gertrude off, and was probably the real reason this rich relative had left Mims very little in her will. Liv wondered if Gertrude had remained in Mary Ellen Rigley's life after her mother left. Did Great Aunt Gertrude know both of her nieces? Could she have been a bridge between the two Mary Ellens?