Single and without children

Someone who was single and leaves no children does not thereby have an empty estate, nor an inheritance for friends. Without a partner and without children the next group comes into view: the parents, together with the brothers and the sisters. The parents do not stand behind the brothers and sisters. You do not skip them because contact was poor or because a parent is already old. In the file you first look for whether a parent is alive, and you note each parent with name and source. Ervazo does not put a friend on the first line because the house is full of photographs of that friend.

You note brothers and sisters after that, each separately, even if a parent is still alive. You do not leave out half-brothers and half-sisters because the word half sounds smaller than brother. You write the relationship as the civil registry knows it, not as the family feels it. A brother who died earlier does not quietly disappear from the list. With that brother belongs the question whether there are children who take his place. That question stays open until you have the answer. You do not fill in a nephew because someone remembers that there was a nephew.

Friends, neighbours and an association do not inherit because they were close by. They inherit only if a will names them. You search for that will in the register, and the deed itself belongs in the file before you enter a friend as heir. A promise at the kitchen table, a card or a codicil about a book does not make that friend an heir to the rest. The codicil can designate a particular book or a particular piece of jewelry. It does not assign the estate. As long as there is no will that names the friend, the friend remains a contact, not a person entitled.

The order in this file is therefore parents and brothers and sisters, not the circle of friends. Each person gets a line of their own. A line with the text the family is not record-keeping. A parent who died earlier you note with the date of death, so that it remains visible why that parent does not share. A friend remains a contact until a will provides otherwise. Ervazo makes no deed and appoints no heir.