Word: aunt
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...maverick designer who as a teenager was inspired by race cars and dreamed of designing for Chrysler. Born in New York City into a Haitian immigrant family and raised in Montreal, Gilles was drawing cars at age 8. In the early 1980s, his sketches caught the attention of an aunt, who wrote to Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca for advice. A few weeks later, a letter urging Gilles to attend design school arrived from K. Neil Walling, then Chrysler's design chief. Following a stint at an engineering college in Montreal, where Gilles says he spent too much time "drawing cars...
...thought I might have been listed in my aunt's will with some small remembrance (not any financial gift). We have no other close relatives--she was widowed and never had children. She used to write to me until we fell out of touch. But I know she moved from Florida to New Jersey, where she was in a nursing home. I heard that she died in 1998. Can state records--like her will--be looked at by a computer novice like me? It has haunted me for years that she died and I don't know her last wishes...
...course you'd like to know that your aunt thought of you at the end. Having some small bequest would affirm your feeling of connection to her and might help you gain closure...
Unfortunately, you might also find yourself on a fruitless journey. If your aunt made a will and it was probated (recognized as official by the court), says Dennis Belcher, past chair of the American Bar Association section on probate law, most states would have required all heirs to be notified within 120 days...
...other counties in New Jersey, call the court clerk and explain your quest. Also call the clerk of the Florida circuit court covering the county where your aunt last lived. Be sure to ask whether she deposited a will; in Florida many people opt to deposit a will with the court, and many never reach probate...