A young woman has revealed how inheriting a small fortune has turned her life upside down.
27-year-old Katie Loveridge is a mother-of-four from Kidderminster, England, who inherited around $350,000 from her father’s friend who became her best buddy when she was a child.
As the mum explained, she befriended her dad’s friend, 72-year-old Wilfred Lamb, who treated her as if she was his own granddaughter.
According to Katie, Wilfred left his entire fortune to her after deciding to cut his family members from his will just days before he passed away.
Following the elderly man’s death, the then-11-year-old became the center of attention as people began asking questions and requesting money from her. As Katie insists, some people even went on to accuse Wilfred of abusing her simply because he decided to leave his money to her rather than his own daughter, Josephine, who was his carer until the end of his life.
While Wilfred’s family accused Katie and her parents of manipulating the old man into changing his will days before his death, High Court years later ruled the changes reflected Wilfred’s genuine wishes.
“I loved him like a granddad and he loved me like a granddaughter and that’s all there was to it,” the 27-year-old, who was forced to start defending herself and her father’s friend, said.
“I was a little girl who never asked for any of this. I honestly wish I never inherited anything because the grief hasn’t been worth it.
“I don’t know what a normal life is and this has tortured me. That inheritance wasn’t worth it because it’s taken such a big part of my life.
“I’m embarrassed to leave home because I get people approaching me left, right and center asking for money. I’ve even had boyfriends steal from my purse.”
She added: “It has wrecked my life and I’ve been in restaurants before and people have said I must have been sexually abused in order to have got the inheritance. That makes me feel disgusting and worthless. I finally want to set the record straight publicly for the first time because I’ve had enough.”
As the 27-year-old insists, she has never been selfish and always tried to help people in need. Nevertheless, however, she has had enough of being in the center of false accusations and requests for money all those years later.
“I had to get away and leave the drama of home behind. My daughter and I were just traveling from one city to another. But my traveling made a lot of people jealous and when I came home, I was suddenly the person who stood out again,” she added.
“And nothing has changed, I feel humiliated out in public and that’s not fair. My dream was to live on Wilfred’s estate and carry on his farm because that’s where all my happy memories are from and I can never buy them back. But they destroyed it and I had no money to fix it up so I had to sell.”
Katie went on to admit that other people’s words and opinions really hurt, and she has decided to speak out about her story to “set the record straight” and urge people to stop judging her.
“It’s not fair for me to be defined by that inheritance. I still get phone calls and Facebook messages from people asking for cash. These are the same people who accuse him of abusing me and it’s wrong because he’s not even alive to defend himself,” the mother-of-four expressed.
“For anyone reading this, please don’t judge me. I’ve done nothing wrong and I just want to live a life like anybody else and look after my family. Trust me when I say, money really can’t buy happiness.”
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