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Legal BriefsDoes Your Elderly Father Have a New Girlfriend? Look Out!IBy Kathleen Cassidy Goodman, PLLCt is not unusual for married couples in their seventies and eighties to be married for fifty years or more. Thelast thing the adult children of these long- standing relationships expect after their mother dies is their father getting a new “girlfriend”. Occasionally, women with long- standing marriages bring a new man into the picture after their husband’s death, but it is rare.When the adult children find out about the new woman in their father’s life, they initially may experience disbelief. With busy lives themselves, the adult children may begin to accept their mother’s replacement. As time passes, they may appreciate the fact that they no longer need to visit their father as often and do not have to worry about him being lonely. However, whenBy Jackie PapandrewWhen I was a kid and apparently had far less to occupy my time than kids do today, I used to sing aloud that fanciful ditty from the 1960s—sung to the tune of On Top of Old Smokey—about a mountain of spaghetti and a wayward, sneeze-propelled meatball. What a great song that was, full of the groovy goofiness that defined The Sixties.For a young whippersnapper like me, The Sixties is a his-torical period, practically ancient times. But for many of you old-fogy flower children, it’s a time you remember fondly. Well, those of you who still have functioning memories remember it fondly. The rest of you are busy searching for your lost meatball.Being a very curious child prone to over-analyzing things, I spent a lot of time puzzling over the logistics of the spaghetti song. How could a sneeze be powerful enough to knock a meat-ball off its pasta perch and send it all the way out the door, I wondered. And why had I never seen one of the trees described in the song, growing meatballs and tomato sauce? I said I was a curious child. I didn’t say I was a smart one.the woman moves in with their father, the relationship may have unexpected consequences for not just their father, but for his assets - specifically the family home.For most people, the family home is their largest asset. Married couples work hard their whole lives to pay the mortgage off. It is their intention that their home will be distributed to their children when they pass away. They have prepared their Wills directing that upon the death of both parents, the proceeds from the home will be distributed in equal shares to their adult children. But, this may not happen if the father’s new “girlfriend” becomes his wife, either formally or by Texas common law.A couple can be legally married without a marriage license or having a marriage ceremony. Once established, a commonlaw marriage has the same legal effect as a ceremonial marriage. Under Texas law, all the couple has to do is: agree to be married, live together as a couple, and hold themselves our to others as being married. If the couple is married, upon the father’s death, the adult children may be in for a big surprise: Texas law provides that the common law wife has the right to live in the house until she dies.Kathleen Cassidy Goodman is an attorney in areas of estate planning, probate, civil litigation, and business law. She can be reached at her office in Helotes at (210) 949-1000 or for more information, visit www.bexarlaw.com~ On Top Of Spaghetti ~With the passage of time and my discovery of TV, I gave up singing that song and pondering those timeless questions and devoted myself to more worthy pursuits like figuring out how to meet and marry The Fonz. The spaghetti song was forgotten.But apparently, it remained somewhere in my head. And when my son was a crying infant, and I was desperate to soothe him, the song reappeared one day out of nowhere, springing out of my mouth like a mushy meatball. It worked wonders on my son. Whenever I sang it, he would stop crying and gaze at me with rapt attention. He was probably just stunned at his poor genetic luck in being born to such a weird woman, but at the time, I credited the song.When my daughter came along, I sang it to her, too. And when they got a little older, and they were still innocent and thought I was the greatest thing since sliced bread, my kids would sing with me. We all laughed at the idea of the stupendous sneeze and the miraculous meatball. Those were good times.Unfortunately, my kids turned into teenagers and lost interest in cheesymelodies. The spaghetti song once again burrowed its way into my memory banks, becoming a moss-covered relic of the past, until one day when I was taking care of my neighbor’s baby. It had been a while since I had to entertain a baby, but I guess it’s like riding a bike. The baby started to cry and once again, I started singing the spaghetti song.“On top of spaghetti,” I warbled, “all covered with cheese...” The baby stopped crying and looked at me in amazement. My own kids covered their ears as if they were in pain. “Mom! What are you doing?” they protested.“Don’t you remember me singing this song with you?” I asked them, crestfallenthat they didn’t seem to recall those happy days. “You used to love it.”My daughter tossed her head in disgust, the way only a teen-age girl can. “There is absolutely no way,” she said, “that I ever liked a song as stupid as that.” Saucy kid. Somebody should have spit in her spaghetti.Jackie PapendrewSyndicated Humor Columnist www.jackiepapendrew.comSoup - continued from page 8Labs says soup regulates body fluids and transmits electrical impulses in the body. Sodium in moderation may be good when a person is feeling ill. In addition, sodium and other seasonings in soup can awaken taste buds that are dulled when sick with a cold. Salt also helps alleviate sore throat pain and can help clear nasal congestion.• Garlic infusion: Soups that contain garlicor garlic extract may reduce the severity of cold and flu symptoms, according to a University of Florida study published in the journal Clinical Nutrition.Soup may be the best medicine when a person has a cold. Its many properties may help make soup as effective, or even more so, than some products at the pharmacy.February 2024www.alamoranchhighlights.com11