After their father’s funeral, I expected my children to stay close.
Instead, the subject of grief quickly became a discussion about property, money, and the future of the business.
One evening, Brandon placed a document in front of me at the dining-room table.
“Dad wanted Melissa and me to take over the orchard,” he said. “We think it would be better if we handled everything quickly.”
I looked over the paperwork and immediately felt uneasy.
Nicholas had always handled important matters with our longtime attorney, Vincent Hargrove. The signature on this document didn’t look like the one I remembered from the final months of Nicholas’s life.
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“Where’s the original?” I asked.
Brandon didn’t answer.
Melissa then told me that a developer was interested in buying the property. According to them, selling the orchard would give everyone enough money to start over.
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
Nicholas and I had spent forty years building that orchard. We had planted trees, repaired irrigation systems, employed local workers, and donated portions of our harvest to community programs.
To me, it wasn’t simply land.
It was our life together.
