08
Mar
A woman recently passed away at the ripe old age of 100 years old. In her will, she left her money to Lake Forest College, the school that she had attended as a young girl. On its face, this isn’t a very interesting story. However, there’s a twist. The amount that the woman left to her college was over £4.5 million ($7 million). What’s really interesting about this is that nobody who knew her was aware of the fact that this woman was a millionaire.
The reason that nobody knew that Grace Groner was a millionaire was because she live an extraordinarily frugal life. The home that she lived in was comfortable but it was small and certainly not flashy in any way. What about her car? She didn’t have one; she chose to walk instead of driving. She even wore used clothes instead of purchasing new ones. There was nothing about the woman that said that she was a millionaire because she simply never spent her money.
In fact, it was her frugality that allowed this amount of money to accrue. Groner had made a very small stock purchase way back in the 1930’s. Since she did not ever touch that stock purchase, it had grown and grown into this large amount of money. Only she and her attorney seem to have known about this money. Upon her death, the fact that she was a millionaire was revealed when it was announced that she would be leaving this entire sum of money to Lake Forest College.
Grace Groner is not the only millionaire who has lived frugally and given away lots of money. Take a look at our previous article on Millionaires Who Give Away Money to learn about others.
Hey, seems you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed, so you will be the first to get our free money saving tips. New today, free The Hut Discount Codes. Get 10% off of Mother’s Day items at The Hut. Thanks for visiting!
2
Hello, my name is Patricia and the most important thing to me in life is my family! I have been married for 23 years, my husband Philip is the best part of me!! I have two daughters and a granddaughter. My oldest is Danielle she is 26 and my granddaughter Joleigh is almost 2. My youngest daughter Tessa is 16. I have lived in Colorado most of my life. But back in 2005 we decided as a family to move to were my sisters lived in Wisconsin to a very small town (Muscoda) and try the country life. We moved on a farm and we got 4 horses and life was amazing! I got a job at a nursing home as the Dietary manager and was a part of a great team, and what I did matter!! I love it, also the company sent me to school to be certified for what I been doing on a daily bases for 3 years, as a Certified Dietary Manager (CDM). My husband was having a hard time finding a job in that small town. He got a good job at a factor, but after 8 months the company down sized and he was laid off. Then we decided to move into town to save money, because I worked in town so we knew it would save us money on gas! And hay was at unbelievable price of 4 dollars a bail. So, I had to sell my horses. That was a very sad time, I love my horses!! So, then my oldest Daughter moved out and started her own family and my youngest daughter made very good friends and play a lot of sport and was a big part of the school and community! She was a very vibrant child! Life was going well my family was finding their way in life and they were healthy and happy. My husband was going back and forth to Colorado for work that was still rough but our girls were doing well. Then life changed, my daughter Tessa her boyfriend committed suicide while on the phone with her. That was so hard on her she felt it was her fault. As adults that would be such a hard thing to go through, let alone a child of 15 years old. She changed, her personality changed we did everything we could to try and make the pain go away and just to see her smile and hear her laugh again. Then things changed again, and my husband got a great job offer in Frisco Colorado as a project and property manager of the Frisco Mall. We talked again as a family and decided that maybe it would be best to move back to Colorado and help Tessa to move on and it was something Tessa thought would be good for her too. But, unfortunately our other daughter stayed in Wisconsin to stay with her family and life she was building with the father of her child. That was very hard because I am very close to my daughters and my grandchild. And me having to leave my job and school, I had become very close to the people that I worked with and also my coworkers and I knew that what I was doing really made a difference in people’s lives. But my husband and I thought it was the right thing to do for Tessa. When we moved back to Colorado a month later, Philip’s mother broken her hip and we found out she had cancer, a month after that she died. She was an amazing women and love all her children and grandchildren very much. Tessa was very close to her she stayed in the hospital with her for about a week and now she has memories she never forget, sitting with her grandmother and writing down all her recipes while her grandmother told her what was in her famous salsa. Then her grandma decided that she wanted to die at home, so we all had sleeping bags on the floor and didn’t leave her side until the end. During this whole time Tessa was missing a lot of school and were really worried that she has not had the chance to make any friends and her grades were not as good as they always were. She has always made fantastic grades and she use to love school. Things were changing in our life fast. After her grandmother died, we have been trying to start our lives again. My husband’s job did not become what was said, to become. He is a very hard working man that loves his family very much, and he’s working for someone that doesn’t have the same outlook on family. I have not found a job yet, but I am looking very hard for one. And it is harder and harder for my family to be apart. We sent Tessa to spend some time with her sister, niece and friends for the summer. Philip and I have realized that we all need to be together. That we want to be there when our granddaughter is in her first play in kindergarten, we want to be in the front role cheering her on. That is what matters in life…is our family being together!! So, I am asking just for enough money to move back to Wisconsin and start our lives again with each other!! I know this sound weird but sometimes I can’t breathe without them. Tessa needs to be happy again, and maybe she will be the person she was meant to be, even though someone decided for her that her life was going to change, she did not deserve to be destroy by someone she just thought she loved. It didn’t need to be that way. So, we just want to work hard as a family and rebuild. I know there are a lot of people who are in so much more need then us, but I just want something to help us get back on the right track in life…our family!!!! Thank you for your time you gave me to read this letter. Sincerely, Patricia
1
Memorial for Grace Groner. Feel free to express your feelings
http://www.lifestrand.net/affection/show/Grace_Groner