I was in the shower and almost missed the phone call that changed my life. When the phone started ringing I hastily wrapped a towel around myself, and slipping and dripping, I waddled over to pick up the receiver just in time.

"Hello ma'am, I'd like to speak to Ms. Matia Duncan."

"I am Edward Boltonsson of Bestemont Trust and I am calling to notify you that Mrs. Anne Regis has passed away. Before she left us, she executed a Last Will and Testament in which she bequeathed you the home she owned in Westchester County with all its contents. The reading of the document shall be held next Tuesday at our New York Office at 40005 Rockefeller Plaza, Suite 11124, in Manhattan, at 9:00 AM. Will you be able to attend?"

"Oh, I'm sorry; 40005 Rockefeller Plaza, Suite 11124", I repeated as I jotted the address down. "Yes, I will be there."

As I gently lowered myself into the nearby rickety, old, wooden chair, I remembered the first time I saw Mrs. Regis, slowly pushing her walker through Central Park. She was a very elderly lady and looked somewhat forlorn and lonely. I approached her and asked if she was alright. I expected to be immediately rebuffed, but instead she seemed genuinely pleased at my inquiry, and so it was that we struck up a "park friendship"; that is, we both came to the park to walk every day and afterwards we would sit on a bench and talk until she told me it was time for her to go. She would always insist I leave first so I never saw where she went when she left. I respectfully decided not to pry.

I was genuinely sorry to hear she had passed away as I had grown accustomed to our meetings over the past year, but I was truly surprised to hear that she had bequeathed me her home and all its contents. Me, a struggling musician living in an Upper West Side closet-sized, "furnished", basement, studio apartment! However, I decided to wait until next Tuesday to see just what I had gotten in to.