Nonfiction | January 06, 2022
Of Sound Mind and Memory
Of Sound Mind and Memory
On Wills and Language and Lawyers and Love
by Judith Claire Mitchell
Preamble
I, _____________, being of sound and disposing mind and memory,
hereby declare this to be my Last Will and Testament . . .
Before I became a writer of novels, I was a writer of wills at the oldest law firm in Rhode Island. The firm was founded by two attorneys in 1818, but by the time I was hired as an estate planning paralegal, 160 years had passed and there were now fifty-some lawyers, almost all male, a like number of staff, almost all female, and a roster of prominent clients, almost all inanimate. The clients were banks and hospitals, manufacturers and developers, municipalities and Brown University.
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