bad blood

My dad had this shotgun.

It was a fine 16 gauge shotgun that was his fathers.

When his father passed my father, with full knowledge of the rest of the family, took the now neglected shotgun out of the back of the closet and claimed it as his own. He asked and made sure no one else wanted it or cared.

This is what he told me as this happened well before I was even born.

What I know is that for every moment I have been alive my father owned a 16 gauge shotgun.

Then in 2003 my father passed away and I claimed his shotgun as my own.

Not long after I started getting hounded by my grandmother stating that this was her shotgun and she wanted it back.

I responded with “no”

She had bought it as a gift for her husband and now after 40+ years wanted it back.

“No”

She wanted to be sure it stayed in the family.

“oh HELL no!”

She was getting a lawyer to get it back.

“go for it”

I did not deny her to be mean or vindictive.

I did it because it was my father’s gun.

It had always been my father’s gun and would always be my father’s gun. I don’t care where it came from because in the 33 years* I knew my father it was his.

Then she mentioned keeping it in the family. That just pissed me off. This 90+ year old woman who lives in a retirement village and cannot see, walk or hear wants me to give up one of my treasured artifacts, something that means a lot to me, just so she can just give it away to my uncles’ daughter.

Then to top it all off she threatened to sic lawyers on me. I laughed out loud at that and told her to do what she had to do. I already knew that her inaction over the past 40+ years had negated any claim she might have had to the gun, but I contacted a lawyer just to be sure and they informed me that I was right and that they would be happy to send her what would basically be a cease and desist letter. I didn’t think that would be necessary.

Reading this I do sound kinda like a dick here but there is a lot of bad blood between her and I.

Wow just dawned on me I only knew my dad for 33 years. That’s not nearly enough time. For 5 I was crapping myself then for 15 more I was a teenager which means I was stupid, selfish and a complete bastard. Then for 12 years more I was raising my own family. Stupid time and stupid human condition. Sadcloud on the day.