WIDOW’S WINDFALL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19365, 23 July 1925, Page 4

WIDOW’S WINDFALL

A LONELY MAN’S FORTUNE BEQUEST OP OVER £41.900 A lonely man's gratitude for tin' care bestowed upon him by his com panion help was revealed whim the will was proved recently of the late Air George Parin Cooley, of Alansfield Rond. Nottingham. The whole of his fortune of over £41,000 is left to .Mrs Jane Holt, a widow, who resides in a modest house some 50 yards away in Huntingdon Street. Air Cooley had no near relatives, and the more remote ones, it is said, had not shown great interest in his welfare. Six years ago he engaged Mrs Holt to look after the house. She continued to live in her own home, but went to her employer’s house daily to tidy up. She also went with him ns companion on more recent travels, and tended him in the illness from which he died. u He always said he would make me a Lady,” Mrs Holt stated, “but I had no idea he would leave me so much. He scarcely used the house except for sleeping in, and would not have a fire lit for a year at a time. He called it the stores. I used to take him a glass of hot milk in the morning and lie would have some coffee later and lunch nt the Constitutional Club.” Airs Holt has been engaged in sorting Mr Cooley’s papers with the assistance of a friend. Since the announcement of her good fortune she had received piles of letters from all over the country. Airs Holt paid a tribute to the goodness of heart of her benefactor. “If he would not have a fire in his own house, he insisted on me having a good one in mine,” she said. “WJirn he came for a cup of tea he would often bring firewood hidden under his cloak.” i Although Air Cooley’s house passes to Airs Holt, she docs not propose to ocl cupy it. She has set her heart on the i erection of a bungalow in the garden. ' leaving the old house available for sale ’for rental. Airs Holt u a native of ' ' Stratford-on-Avon. Her husband died some years ago. • Air Cooley was a member of a Northampton family and in his younger days served in the merchant service. Before the war he travelled extensively.