Throwing open some windows and pulling back the curtains Mary found the cold air stimulating, despite having the heater on. Sunday was the day she should finally go to Church but Mary got to asking herself WHY? Other than Sunday school Mary had had very little to do with churches until her parents died but each had wanted a service conducted by a Minister in a church and Mary had naturally complied.

At the time she thought it distinctly odd that having no Church connections her parents had wanted one in their final hours.

Mary’s original idea was to visit some of the local churches here one by one until she decided which one she liked best and which one was the easiest walk from home. But country girl Mary was not so what use was it in becoming part of a congregation in a community to which she really did not belong.

However, she thought long and hard about her parents and decided that going to Church had quite a lot to offer other than for the making of friends and finding a suitable marriage partner but she did find that young men who attended Church usually had rather better attitudes to relationships, marriage and the family.

It was still cold out there but Mary had enough warm clothes and she could do with a walk after being stuck inside all day yesterday.

So closing most of the windows once more as by now apart from being fresh the air was once again decidedly chilly Mary went off to make herself breakfast and feed the kittens who were hanging around her legs mewing, their gentle little cries making Mary feel quite guilty that she had not already fed them.

She sat down to her own Sunday special of fried bacon and eggs and tomatoes and thoroughly enjoyed her own repast in her own home, the kittens having disappeared to play their usual hide and seek after being fed and she was sure the next time she came across them she’d find them curled up fast asleep, somewhere in the house.

She showered and dressed carefully, realising she could really add to her wardrobe for such occasions but she’d have to wait for her return to the city to do that.

Mary was becoming increasingly aware of fashion and style, which she’d not thought twice about before coming into money.

She wondered how she’d managed successfully to waste the last 15 years of her life, such an awareness coming as rather a shock. She knew little to nothing of the ways of men and didn’t really have any hobbies or interests worth mentioning. But change was in the air, and Mary embraced it.

She found a scarf which she put on to keep her hair in check as there was a vigorous wind blowing and donned her thickest coat and some comfortable walking shoes and set off, hoping she’d be in time for the commencement of the first service of the day.

The closest church was Presbyterian and when she arrived at the small stone building with its quaint stained glass windows and its wonderful spire steeple she found others were just assembling and she joined them inside.

The minister came into the congregation took his place in the pulpit and delivered the first prayer with the congregation standing with closed eyes and bent heads although the occasional child would tug at their parent’s coat and sometimes even start to talk, but they were hushed by their parents and Mary was amazed at how good they were.

She couldn’t help wondering where they had all come from but her distractions were interrupted by the small choir, accompanied by the organist, a middle aged woman who Mary suspected had been doing this for most of her life and she joined in with the congregation, reading the words in front of her, vaguely remembering the rather familiar tune and making sure she did not sing out of order. She followed quite well and found she enjoyed the singing, something she had not other opportunity for doing. It was uplifting. As was the minister’s sermon, something to do with one of the parables and it was easy to understand.

Half way through the service the minister allowed the older children to leave, those who did not have their parents with them and had come for the earlier Sunday School, after which he delivered a more serious service and Mary listened intently, here was someone actually giving her advice a sadly lacking commodity in her life.

There were more hymns and more prayers but the service ended quite soon and Mary found herself queuing with the others to thank and say farewell to the Minister, even though she did not have a lot to say.

He mentioned that he had not seen her before and Mary filled him in briefly on her circumstances, he nodded sagely as she spoke.

She went home at a brisk pace and felt invigorated by the whole experience and rather ashamed

That she had left it so long. She’d been happy to put a large donation in the plate, which she could well afford to do, ensuring it was generous but not so generous as to incite too much interest.

It was a considerably sobered Mary who returned home, knowing she, of anyone, had much to thank God for, he seemed to have rescued her from an entirely dull existence.

Once inside and having changed into some more comfortable gear for around the house Mary sat sipping a hot chocolate as it had been really cold outside but the walk had been invigorating.

As often happens after such occasions Mary’s mind turned to the two most certain things in life - death and taxes.

The Church service and thinking once more about her parents had turned back the clock for Mary and she thought of the three deaths she had experienced in such a short time, life was certainly unpredictable. Her parents had led a pleasant but rather unambitious life style and they had made no real provisions for their future, they carried no life insurance or even death insurance, but they had been sufficiently responsible to have had a funeral plan, apparently they had sought no legal advice although they did have wills so somewhere along the line she gathered they must have visited a lawyer.

They had no car and therefore needed no car insurance, they didn’t believe in credit and had no credit cards, they could have taken out a loan and bought a house or a unit and if they had done so when they were young they would have been able to buy a nice house with a big backyard, more than a lot of young people could do nowadays.

They felt they did not need money, over and above what they had and her father had not made any effort to advance himself in life by seeking a better paid job. And yet in their own way they seemed happy, it was Mary who seemed to have missed out on things.

But with the yet third death in the family, Mary’s luck and circumstances had changed and Mary thanked her good fortune and her great Uncle’s astute financial skills as well as his largesse in leaving his entire fortune, which he had carefully managed, to herself and yet he had seemed such a modest man, but it all pointed Mary to the view that by thought and diligence we can all manage our affairs better. Of course, Uncle Cyril had never known what is was like to rear a family but he could have opted to lead the life of a wastrel which clearly he had not.

And Mary knew he had been sufficiently astute to seek the help and guidance of a good legal advisor and a competent account who delivered sound financial advice, judging by the satisfactory outcome. Mary’s bequest had included much more than the house and money she had inherited, she had also inherited a good lawyer and a good financial advisor. This had freed her from becoming the victim of the first financial shark that came along. Mary was well aware of her own limitations.

But what should she do, she didn’t need life insurance or even death insurance and probably did not need a funeral plan, she did need a will and Mr. Thomas had advised her to do that as soon as possible but where would she leave her money, to the church or charity and who knew what her future held but if she didn’t do it she may well find her wealth going to the Government and who would want that. There were far better causes, Mary was quite convinced of that. What Mary did have an opinion on was politicians and she did not like any of them and considered the Government wasted an awful lot of people’s hard earned money.

She didn’t need a mortgage to get herself a house, she already had one and she was indeed very fortunate for a young woman of 35, on her own in the world, without a financial care in the world, or so she had thought until just recently.

So Mary came to the conclusion that she should indeed make a will, and if she had a funeral plan that would make it easier for whoever had the responsibility of burying her, not that she liked to think about death, she’d faced too much of that already.

She rejected the idea of life insurance or death insurance but realized this could be a valuable option for others.

Separate bank accounts would be helpful, as this would allow her to keep a better track of her money and she resolved to call into the Bank after work to-morrow to arrange it. She’d spend the afternoon adding up the wages she had earned and depositing that amount into a separate account from now on banking her wages directly there, she was determined not to spend any as she had not take the jobs for the purposes of providing income.

She did have a small credit card from when she was working which she had used to make small purchases always paying on time and avoiding interest. Now she wanted a much more generous one as it would save her having to carry large sums of cash at times. So that was something else she would arrange with the bank.

With those decisions made she would spend the rest of the day doing some tidying up and thinking some more about her renovations.

So Mary’s new decisions included visit the Bank and create some new bank account to better manage her finances, no life insurance, no death insurance, but a reliable funeral plan, a visit to Mr. Thomas, solicitor, to draw up her will, an expansion of her credit cards, no loans or mortgages because she didn’t need them, legal advice, for sure, she did not need any more money as she had plenty at this time set aside for renovations and the purchase of a car, and when she thought of the car she realized she would definitely need car insurance, and of course, Mr. Thomas was arranging house insurance for her but Mary was anxious to learn to manage her own affairs as much as possible. She could transfer money between accounts when she needed and she’d be solely in charge of that so although the thoughts of the two most certain things in life, namely death and taxes had initially proved depressing Mary had benefited by thinking about things a lot more and with that she now felt much more cheerful. Our Mary would be doing a lot more thinking from now on but before sunset Mary decided she’d take a walk around the garden.

She opened the back door and gasped, the picture she was presented with quite took her breathe away, in fact it was a big shock, right here in her own back yard.