Relatives Fighting Over Scraps

LOSING OUT to some fast-fingerered family members on the heels of a death in the family will always remain a burning memory of mine and as we pack up to attend another funeral, the fighting has already started over wannabe heirlooms. There's a missing watch, some early 20th century military campaign ribbons, and pages from a family photo album that have disappeared from a small bungalow that used to be home for the senior member of the family tree. When things got messy in Pennsylvania over furniture, statues and 19th century kitchenware, I didn't get involved. But I did resolve to articulate in a will the way I'd like to see things handled in my case. I want to have everything worth bickering about put into one room and let everyone draw straws for the rights to claim lots of stuff. Then I consider the little pieces of paper that I value from deceased relatives--the pages from notebooks, the single dog-eared photos that used to hand in lines of sight throughout the day--and I wonder how similar things from my life will fare. Since most of my notebooks and photos are digital, will they be the cause of a clash between survivors? Should I reduce some of my most popular items to physical form? Should I work out a plan where the stuff stays in the cloud for a few decades, ensuring the process by having my estate pre-pay Blacknight or PutPlace for three decades of service? Or should I destroy all physical property and save its memory in digital form so there's no fighting? I'm thinking about all these things as I make plans to ship a container of valuable things from the neighbour's barn (at left) to our Irish home.

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