This new lawyer seemed sympathetic, but then I was paying him to be sympathetic, wasn’t I? He said, ‘Oh, it’s not at all unusual. Very often people will leave clauses like this in their wills and the main thing for the executor is to make sure the instructions are carried out to the letter.’

I said, ‘I just want to sell up and forget about this,’ and he said, ‘No court is going to grant probate on that will until you’ve done what it asks you to do, which is meet up with your sister and offer her some part of the estate, up to half.’ So that was basically another $500 wasted on advice that told me nothing I didn’t already know.

I left that lawyer’s office and went home and got back on the phone to Doug and said, ‘Here’s what I want you to do. I want you to write to this woman this week and tell her that I’m supposed to offer her half but I don’t want to offer her half, and see what she says. And if she says, “Oh, I’ll take half, thank you very much,” tell her I’ll see her in court.’

Doug wouldn’t have it. He was saying, ‘Oh, I can’t do that, Snow. I have my instructions and they are to put you two in touch with each other so you can discuss this clause in the will.’

I said, ‘That’s all very well, Doug. You may have your instructions but I have my bills.’ And I said, ‘This is just ridiculous. You know I’m going to contest this, don’t you? And this sister, if she can even prove she is a sister, will not stand a chance. She never even met my father.’

Doug said, ‘I know it’s disappointing, Snow, but try to see the upside. Don’t you want to meet Agnes? She’s your sister, the only family you have in the world!’

I could hardly believe what I was hearing. ‘Why on earth would I want to meet her?’ I said. And I hung up without bothering to say goodbye.

I probably don’t need to tell you that Mark was furious when I got home and told him all about it, saying, ‘How can this person have any claim at all?’ And, ‘Let’s sue her.’ But all we could really do was wait for Doug to go through the motions – getting back in touch with Agnes, telling her all about the will, and telling her that Dad’s intention was that we get together to discuss it and that she had a right to take half – all of which was pretty sickening, especially waiting to hear what she’d come back with. Every time the phone went I’d have to snatch it up because Doug had one of those stupid blocked numbers, but finally it was him and, to the silly woman’s credit, at least Agnes did the right thing.

‘She has absolutely no interest in making a claim on the estate,’ Doug told me.