One day I received a call from a small rental building in Bal Harbor, FL. It seems that they were worried about one of their tenants. The tenant just stopped going out. There was no one to bring her food. She had no relatives and no friends. They were convinced she was starving to death because she had no money. Actually they didn't really know what was going on at all, so they called me.
The first thing I did was stop at Burger King for food to bring with me. As I knocked hesitantly on her door I held up the food so she could see and and more importantly smell it. This is no ploy, it invariably works better than any key and within 30 seconds I was invited inside the apartment.
Inside was clean and bare. There was not one luxury item in evidence. Everything was old and functional. There was no art, no beautiful objects, no nice clothes or shoes or anything like that. There was only Sarah. Sarah was barely five feet tall and she weighed no more than 95 pounds soaking wet. There wasn't enough food in the apartment to feed a good sized ant. She was timid but not afraid. She was not very communicative, but she was very smart and very aware. She spoke with a mild European accent.
After about 90 minutes I suddenly stood up and said:
"Come on Sarah, I'm going to take you food shopping."
She brightened noticeably and went to get her money. She returned dragging a suitcase with her.
"No Sarah honey, we're just going to the market, you don't need your suitcase."
Actually she did need her suitcase, because it was full of 5's, 10's and 20's.
My eyes must have been as big as saucers. I'll never forget, it was 4:30 in the afternoon.
In panic mode, I called my friend at HSBC bank and begged:
"Pleae don't close - I'm coming down with a suitcase full of cash"
They promised to stay open for me, but we weren't through. Sarah dragged another suitcase out of her closet and I called the local police department and asked for an escort to drive us both to the bank.
In those days they didn't have those fancy cash counting machines. So it wasn't until 9:30pm that the count and recount was completed by the bank. It totalled just a tad over $600,000. Sarah was quite specific and lucid as to the reason she had so much cash on hand; the last time the Germans came she was unprepared and couldn't flee. If they ever came back, she would be prepared this second time. Sarah and I just made it to Burger King for dinner before they closed.
I kept Sarah as a client for about ten years until her death. Every time I saw her she would kiss my hand in greeting. She was a gentle soul. She never wanted to move. She never wanted the trappings of money. She lived a simple life. She told me heart wrenching, harrowing stories of the Holocaust. She had no living relatives, but there was one friend of hers she was still in contact with in New York. When she passed, he received the balance of her estate.
You never know, you just never know......................
Ronnee
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