For The Love of Money

By Augusta

This story is about the life of a mother and grandmother cut short due to the greed of her youngest daughter Hagatha. Hagatha used lies and manipulation to overtake her mother’s estate and capture her freedom, until she had absolute power. The family tried desperately to bring their mama back to her home. But, their attempts were futile. Their mother passed away from heartbreak and despair at an untimely age. Hagatha continued to undermine her mother in the distribution of her estate. Little did she know that her own world would be turned upside down when tragedy comes knocking at her front door several years later.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 16, 2024
• ISBN: 9781796082142

Augusta

Augusta was born in a small southern town. She was married many wonderful years to her husband who is now deceased. She is a proud mother, grandmother, and grandmother. Those whom she babysat as little children know her as “Grandma Augusta”. She takes care of the elderly in her community and visits those who are sick in the nursing home. She also took care of her older sister until she passed away. She enjoys attending church, singing in the choir for over 40 years, and has taken on the responsibility of decorating it on special occasions. In her leisure time she enjoys reading the Bible and sitting by the oceanside.

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Copyright © 2024 by Augusta.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 05/13/2024

Xlibris

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www.Xlibris.com

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                          In

Loving Memory . . .

                          Mom—Mrs. Beatrice Connor

                          Dad—Xavier

                          Brother—Xavier Jr.

                          Nephew—Xavier III

                          Nephew—Tebow

                          Nephew—Ethan Jr.

                          Sister—Yolanda

                          Sister-in-law—Winnie

                          Cousin—Zach

                          Husband—Miles

                          Dog—Max

Our

mother, Beatrice, and our father, Xavier, were both born and raised up north. They moved down south in the late 1950s. They would eventually settle there and have a total of four children. They had one boy, Xavier Jr., and three girls: Yolanda, myself (Maria), and Hagatha. I was the youngest of three children at that time. Several years later, our youngest sister, Hagatha, was born. Our parents worked hard and saved their money.

Our father worked as a bridge builder and did other construction jobs until he retired in the late 1970s. Mom worked as a chef in the finest restaurant and a private cook and retired at a school as a cook. They enjoyed their lives together and adored their children. They provided everything we needed. Our mother made the clothes that we wore. She kept that old sewing machine that she made our clothes with, which Hagatha left behind after she got what she wanted out of the house and other things that were valued—even things I bought for Mom and Dad over the years. The electric sewing machine is a Singer 99. She cooked every meal for us as though she was cooking in a restaurant. Our parents were deeply in love. We worked together as a family.

When Hagatha was born, our mother told me that she was my baby so that I wouldn’t get jealous because I had been the baby for several years. I did everything for Hagatha. I loved her with all my heart. By the time my older siblings and I had graduated from high school, Hagatha had started to resent us even though our parents were able to do more for her than they were able to do for us.

One of the reasons Hagatha envied us was because our mother bought Yolanda a car after she graduated from college. When our parents offered to send her to college, she replied with an attitude, I don’t want y’all to send me to college so you can throw what you did for me in my face. I’m joining the military.

Prior to Hagatha going to the military, on the weekends, she would stay in bed for half of the day because she didn’t want to be around our parents. Hagatha hated it whenever any of us visited our parents. She would get mad when we brought our children over to visit. She would storm off into her bedroom and stay there until we left.

Hagatha was the type of person you would call a loner. She despised people. She had only one close friend, who was disabled. Hagatha thought that since her friend was disabled, she would be in control and could boss her around. Hagatha even hated the idea of our mother having a pet because she didn’t want anyone or anything to love our mother.

After Hagatha graduated high school, she did indeed enlist in the military. Our parents were afraid for her life. They didn’t want her to go. During her first year in the military, she would write to our mother to tell her about her training and about the terrible time she was having there. She wrote about how the sergeants molested the women, and she told our mother that she wanted to leave the base and move into an apartment. But the only way she could leave was if she got married. She had a boyfriend, Ethan, whom she had started dating during her last years of high school.

She told our mom that she was going to marry him so that she could move out of the military base. She came back down south to marry him. After they married, they went back to where she was stationed and got an apartment together. He didn’t work, and he became very jealous whenever Hagatha would leave to work. Most of the time, he would go to the base to spy on her. He would make a scene and would have to be thrown out of the base. He caused so much of a ruckus that he was no longer allowed there.

One time, I went to visit our parents to show them their new grandbaby, Zuri. She was their first granddaughter. On the way, I visited Hagatha where she was stationed to let her see the baby. She began to tell me how her husband was treating her. You see these pictures on the wall? There are holes behind them, she said.

He would slam her head against the wall. He would knock holes in the walls with his fists. Every day, when she came home, he would fight her. I asked her if she told Mom about what was going on. She said no and that she didn’t want our parents to know. I was so upset by what she told me, but she made me promise not to say a word, so I didn’t tell a soul. We all knew he had been dealing with some issues from his childhood.

I remember getting ready for bed one night at her apartment. Hagatha came in and saw me reading my Bible. She told me not to let her husband see me with that Bible because he was raised in another religion and they didn’t like our kind of Bible being in their houses.

The fights between the two of them were getting worse. Hagatha was very afraid that something might happen to her. She gave her friend our mother’s phone number and told her to call our mother if anything happened to her.

Hagatha served a few years in the military, and while she was serving, she gave birth to a baby girl. She would have stayed in the military longer, but the fighting and the jealousy would not stop. They moved back down south, but they didn’t have any place to live. Ethan couldn’t go back to his parents’ house to live because of their bad relationship. Our mother’s house was small but very tidy. Hagatha and Ethan could not stay there because of their constant fighting, but she did allow the baby to live with them. Ethan’s grandfather had a small trailer that they eventually moved into. It had no running water. They had to bathe outside in the backyard with a water hose that had very cold water. They had very little money and very little food to eat. Eventually, they bought an old van. Shortly after that, they had their second baby girl. The children stayed in the house with our parents. Hagatha and Ethan slept in the van, which was parked inside our parents’ big yard.

One Friday, at around five o’clock in the afternoon, I went to visit our parents to see how my nieces were doing. I went into the kitchen where our mom was cooking fish. You could have smelled the fish from a mile away. Like I said, she cooked like a chef. I asked her, Where are the children?

I did not know that Hagatha was in the bedroom because the van was gone. She told me that Hagatha had them cooped up in the bedroom all day and that she wouldn’t let them come out of the room. Then I said in a soft tone, Hagatha knows better than to keep those kids in that room all day long like that.

Then, right out of the blue, Hagatha flew out of the bedroom where she and the kids were. She rushed into the kitchen and started punching and hitting me all over my face. She threw me onto the floor. I couldn’t get a grip on her. She was fighting me as though she was fighting a stranger. The girl went crazy! We didn’t know who she was at that point. Our dad was in the dining room, eating his fish dinner. When he heard the commotion, he ran out of the dining room and saw that Hagatha was beating me up. He jumped in and tried to pull her off of me, but she had such a death grip on me. They couldn’t get her off of me. Dad yelled out to Mom, Get my damn gun! I’m going to shoot this damn heifer!

After he said that, she let me go. While cursing at Dad, she ran outside and got into her car in a rage, leaving her children behind.

Shortly after, her husband came back and asked, Where is Hagatha?

We told him what had happened and how she ran out of the house in a rage. He said, I know where she is. She goes to the lake whenever she is angry and contemplates suicide there. I can always talk her out of it. He returned without her. He told us that she was standing on the bridge there, trying to make up her mind whether or not to jump. For about two weeks after that, she never apologized to me or our parents, who are both dead now.

After some time went by, Hagatha got a loan, and they bought a house. They then had more children. She finally got a job again; she started working for the city, and Ethan had his own business. Mom, Dad, and I always babysat their children while they worked. They never paid us one cent for watching the children. Ethan’s parents couldn’t help because they had to work too.

Ethan tried a few times to give us something for watching the children, but Hagatha would stop him every time. This is just one example of how much Hagatha loves money and how ungrateful and selfish she is.

I remember her husband giving me some money once for babysitting their children. Hagatha then shouted, How much are you paying her? Money has always been her god, and she will do anything to get it. As the children got older, they would always tell my husband, Miles, and me that they wished we were their parents. Those children were the unhappiest kids I have ever seen. They were neglected and never had much to eat