Dear Ann Landers,
am a fairly intelligent woman (or so I thought) in a state of shock. Why? Be-cause I didn't know the first thing about inheritance laws. I sit here dumbfounded at my ignorance and angry at my deceased husband for not educating me. (Maybe he didn't know any better either, but he should have.) John and I were married 33 years. We have two children. Five years ago our son ran off with a girl we never liked. We haven't heard from him since. Our daughter is living in Cali-fornia with some hippie-weaving bas-kets. We wrote her off in 1972 when she wrote us a nasty letter about our "crass materialism." Two weeks ago John died of a heart attack. He was 57 and in the best of health. No history of a coronary prob-lem, ever. He had a physical in De-cember and was pronounced fit as a fiddle. John left no will. When the lawyers told me I am entitled by law to only one-third of my husband's estate and our daughter and son will divide the other two-thirds I almost keeled over. Yes, that's the way the law in Illinois reads and I am helpless. I am writing in the hope that you will print this letter and wake up others who are as stupid as I was. DON'T KNOW WHAT HIT ME 1284 THE ANN LANDERS ENCYCLOPEDIA