Cynthia looked at the wall clock for the umpteenth time, willing time to fly. Barely 15 minutes into the one-hour counselling session, she was exasperated already. Much as she loved her job as a marriage/relationship counsellor, there were those days and those couples capable of making her rethink her career choice. The Gregorys were on the top of that list.
How they manage to stay married is nothing short of a miracle. Mrs Gregory disbelieves everything her husband says, certain he has coloured the truth, at best. Mr Gregory was tired of being perpetually labelled a liar. If only his wife would trust him!
Before you label Mrs Gregory an unrepentant doubting Thomas, take a sneak peek into her experience with lying men.
The trail commenced with her father who persistently lied to her mother that he had an active textile business in Lome, Togo. He would go for days and return with goodies for the family. They only realised he was a car smuggler after he lost his life in a gun battle with Customs officials.
Her uncle also made empty promises to take care of her and her siblings. She ended up hawking on the streets after the Uncle took away everything her father left behind for them. Kunle, the love of her youth could never be caught telling the truth and Ben, the sales boy she employed when her provision store started to thrive would effortlessly triumph at any lying competition.
To cap it up, Mr Gregory had also lied to her. That one time, when he told her he was off to a business meeting whereas he was actually hanging out with the boys. If not for Pat, his loud-mouthed friend who asked how he was coping with the hangover after last night’s fun, she would never have known the truth about her husband’s whereabouts the previous night. He says he only lied that one time, but who can tell? Who knows what else he has been lying about? Heaven forbids that she trusts a lying man.
Cynthia smiled inwardly, the one hour was almost over. Mrs Gregory had managed to draw her husband into a shouting match with her unmasked disregard for his words, using up all the time. Finally managing to get in a word, Cynthia introduced them to the trust creed. She had come up with a trust creed when she observed that majority of the marriages brought before her fundamentally suffered from lack of trust.
Who can blame them really, trust is one of those things everyone gives sparingly.
Every time someone demands your trust, you weigh them to determine their integrity level. Previous actions and the opinion of other people about them often inform the decision to place or withdraw your Trust. This explains why people are often wary of committing their estate to an organisation. It is the fear that everything you have gathered over the years will be mishandled or carted away.
However, is it not more relaxing to commit your affairs to a tested and trusted organisation with a verifiable track record of over 26 years and strict regulation than to leave it to the hands of fate? Think about it!
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