You Know You Have Been in The Business A Long Time When….
Originally published at allaboutestates.ca July 17, 2013:
It is late Friday afternoon, the very start of my one week holiday to Vermont and with drink in hand, I sit down to enjoy reading the Globe and Mail. As I started the Report on Business, I was captured by beautiful pictures on a page and Stuart McLean’s name. I have enjoyed listening to his stories for many years and like many of you, I am sure, I have enjoyed reading about Dave and Morley and the wonderful Vinyl Café stories that weave the fabric of our society.
It is his story called Coyote Lake which is in today’s Globe that I am enjoying; a story originally told in The Vinyl Café, that has been excerpted and shared in the paper. The story begins with a dream and the purchase of land that a family purchases and enjoys for years. So much so that in order to safeguard and protect the environment and the Lake at which they live, they offer it to the Nature Conservancy of Canada in guarantee of conservation protection. It is a rich story as they all are and one I am enjoying. However, partway through it, I became stuck. Stuck because all I could think about was the estate implications of what was initially ‘the family cottage’ that had been traded away in exchange for something which did not have a price tag and the legal, tax and financial implications that would follow!
Thank you my fellow bloggers. A few short years ago, I likely would have enjoyed the story for what it was and not thought about estate and legacy issues. Today I am a wiser woman.
As much as I have enjoyed writing these blogs, I have enjoyed and learned from them as well. Now back to my story and my vacation……
-Audrey Miller
