My old mate, Ian Sinclair, Punjab, turned up earlier this month. We had much to talk about. He's been in Oz a couple of months having picked up his camper-van from where he leaves it in Australia. I not sure where. He flew into Sydney and after getting his van he headed to Queensland, visiting a mate, Col Stone, in northern NSW, on the way. He called at another mate's place, Bob Cooper, in Cairns, then he was off to Cooktown.
I mention Col and Bob by name because we all lived in Mt Waverley in the 1960's. Ian stayed with us from Sat 8 Nov till Monday 17 Nov. He rang a few times on his travels, his intention was to go across to Darwin and travel down to SA but the rego was due on his van and being NSW registered he needed a roadworthy certificate and this was more easily obtained for some reason in NSW so he headed south without the leg across the top.
He rang on 7 Nov from where he was camped in western NSW to say he wasn't far away, maybe he could do it in a day's drive. I told him that was fine he was welcome whenever. I told him briefly about my family's property at Emerald being for sale and the difficulties of that with all the paperwork with agent and solicitor back and forth and family complications. He said he was having hassles with his family here in Oz and he was keen to tell me about it when he came. He was very interested in my family situation given that he was a frequent visitor in the early days when my family moved to Emerald. He was involved with the initial tree plantings and has visited the farm multiple times over the last 55 years, as recently as last summer.
Ian's family drama revolved around money. Assets of Reg Cantillon, Ian's step father. The Cantillons lived a few doors up from us in Virginia St. Mt Waverley. After Mrs Cantillon died and Ian's father died, Reg and Ian's mum, Beryl, married. Beryl died four years before Reg. He died in 2011. There were assets belonging to Reg that the executors, State Trustees, did not locate at the time the will was executed. These assets were unknown to the 6 beneficiaries, Ian, his brother and sisters and the Cantillon twins. A solicitor who specializes in this sort of thing, locating and processing lost assets found them somehow. He contacted Ian's family saying he knew where some of them were and that they amounted to in excess of $100k at the time the will was executed and had accrued to be worth over $500k now. This solicitor said he could find all the assets and organize their release to the executors for distribution to the beneficiaries. He would do this if the beneficiaries signed an agreement which would pay him 30pc of the total. Everyone else was willing to sign but not Ian, who thought 30pc too high a sum for some patient legwork.
One of Ian's sisters died in the interim so her bequeath would be split to her 2 children. Of the 7 needed to sign off Ian is the only one unwilling, so he's unpopular with the others. What a mess! Ian has found some of the assets are Commonwealth Bank Shares but knows not how many or what others there are or maybe, nor the total amount. He's trying to get the lady at the State Trustees who handles this to work with him to find them but she's unavailable, then on leave, then still not back when she said she would be. Nobody else there seems willing to work on it and say it will take weeks or months to find details never mind gaining authority.
Ian is understandably suspicious that there's some form of legal collusion at work. He's in no hurry to get his share. Others want it now or as quick as they can get it, never mind losing $160k plus to the solicitor. For much of the time he was here Ian was consumed by all this and spending countless hours on the phone to family and others discussing it and bringing me up to date following that.
While this was going on I was consumed with matters to do with our property sale at Emerald. On that note I can say it has been sold, part deposit was paid 14 Nov with balance on 5 Dec. My fingers are still crossed nothing goes wrong. Settlement is set for 16 Jan. Then my involvement spanning over 5 decades will be over. Meredith and Roger are so busy getting rid of stuff and cleaning up, they have my sympathy. Jod thinks the new people will let him stay in his bungalow. I don't know how that will end.
There's more I could write about for November but it will wait. I've worn myself out mentally going over all the legal stuff. Ian and I talked of so many things that have happened in our lives over the 60 plus years we have known each other. He and Gord came with me to Adelaide where we stayed overnight so I could attend (they came too) a SA chapter reunion of Old Camberwell Grammarians. A wine and cheese night. There was only one other bloke there from my final year, 1970, but we had an enjoyable time talking to mostly old guys. We then had dinner at a Greek cafe. We visited my Aunt Hatsu in Adelaide on the Saturday on the way home. She's 92 and managing quite well with home care. To think, she first met me when she came to Australia in 1961 having married my uncle. I was nine years old. She was a girl during WW11 when Japan was heavily bombed. She ate sparrows and mice to stave of severe hunger.
Ian and I agreed that being a human being is an adventure.
