Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for February 18, 2010

Looks like she’s walking the walk .

And Alix still doesn’t know that Gram’s not coming back. Val’s had plenty of time to tell her–I’m sure that it took time to learn about the house being put in her name. (Only I thought it was her house to begin with.)

I’ll bet Joan is ticked that her mom gave so much to Val and didn’t give her a dime.

babsbybend, oh, I bet Holly’s told Alix already…

Doesn’t Wally know that is not something anyone wants to think about in connection with family?

Lucy wants some coffee in the last panel. :-)

It surprises me that Evie left the house to Val and didn’t split it between Joan and Val. If Val got the house what did Joan get, the shaft?

Awww…poor Alix..

I’m betting Wally’s little dissertation put the idea in Val’s head that Evie transferred titles and left home because she is terminally ill. Note Val’s expression in the last panel. Would also explain Gram’s decision to not come home, living her last days to the fullest. All that being Val getting her exercise by jumping to conclusions, of course…

Once you are looking at less than 20 years to the maximum years your parents lived, it’s always good to just try to make the most of remaining time…. OR why wait until then? And I’ve said all along it was Evie’s house - like me she probably made payment for many decades;-)

Joan’s and Val’s mother may be a senior citizen, but she’s not dead yet. She enjoys helping, and she wants to help people who are in more need than her family. Why shouldn’t she do what she enjoys? She has a second career of sorts, and may have found her calling in life. And if she’s also found someone to love, it’s a winning situation for everyone.

If she stays overseas - and that still might be only an IF for now - her family will miss her, but they’ll also discover that they can survive without her constant presence. And they can talk to her any time they like, over the Interwebs. Plus, the girls have some incentive to travel when they’ve grown up.

Isn’t evolution wonderful?

@ Paul Jones: there may be a few people in the USA who have discovered that equity has lost its charm.

I want to know why Val always seems to be in a money crunch when she doesn’t even have a house payment.

Why does everyone assume that children are entitled to an inheritance? The person leaving the legacy has the right to do what he or she wants to do with it. That person is the one who earned and owns it.

Not knowing how Val spends her money, office workers do not make much could be $8 to $12 hour not enough to live on let alone make house payments and with two daughters to raise takes the check down. I’m also not sure of is Val a Administrative Assistant they make a little more with more responsibilities. As far as Evie is concerned she is very healthy and enjoying helping others.

How do I get to volunteer like Mom did? Where do you go to sign up for such a thing as helping to build homes and schoolhouses and such?

RoolDeeWurldMan, start here http://www.habitat.org/

When it was time for my aged mother to move in with my sister and her family, she used the sale proceeds from her condo to finance the down-payment on the house they now share. My sister and brother-in-law are making the mortgage payments. When the time comes for her estate (such as it is) to be split up, my mother’s interest in the house will simply pass to my sister. I have ABSOLUTELY no problem with that, and neither does my brother.

Joan doesn’t seem like the type to begrudge Val the bulk of Evie’s largesse.

As far as Wally’s comment goes, nobody likes to think about those things happening to one’s loved ones (except the ones who are salivating over thoughts of inheritances), but the smart ones think about them anyway. And as he said, he IS in insurance…

Telling Alix about Evie’s prolonged absence will certainly be tough, and I don’t imagine Jan is going to shy away from the subject. But I imagine it’ll be handled well, and to Alix’s eventual satisfaction…

I read this strip as being a big wake-up call to Val, who has been making the current payments but not holding the mortgage–she can run the whole deal, Mom trusts her with it. Joan has no need of the house, she’s got one next door. And Wally is speaking truth, and knows that Edie gets it and thinks ahead. This is big truth telling, even when it’s not easy.

I bet Val has been buying the house from Gram all along. That would explain why Gram signed it over, & why it wouldn’t have been considered as an inheritance for Joan.

hey babsbybend, maybe the same envelope that had that check (see yesterday) had a note about the house. That wouldn’t take much time at all.

It’s good that the comic is not stagnant - it changes like life, which makes it interesting.

@caxphx, I had thought maybe Val was paying rent to her mother, even a nominal amount. I’ve seen a lot of situations like that.

And she is feeding three people (herself and the children).

I rather thought Evie was my age (in her 70s) and Val and Joan in their late 40s as my 4 kids are…I was 21 when I married and they were born from Jan 1960 to July of 1964. I then had a “procedure”

But the strip has always said that Evie moved in with Val and then Joan moved in (and then moved out when she married Wally). So I’m confused… I know that when Evie won money in the lottery she paid off a big chunk of Val’s mortgage but they never mentioned anything about putting her name on the deed. The house was the house that Val and Tom lived in with their kids - then Tom passed away, Evie moved in when she was widowed (I guess?) and then Joan moved in with Max when Leon split.

I’m confused…