Long story but I'm so upset. :(
I'm American. My great great grandparents came over from Finland long ago (I believe around 1910 but I may be wrong). They settled around a lake far up north (almost Canada) and built a house which has now fallen into disrepair.
They had several descendents. We're all pretty well spread out now but a few remained in the little town. My grandmother moved a thousand miles away but always brought her DC (including my father) back to the little town for holidays. My father loved it and when he grew up moved back there with my mother and brother and me. I was eight at the time so it's pretty much where I grew up. We didn't live on the land but about ten miles away. A descendent (my grandmother's cousin) and his wife lived there. We visited them often and so many of my childhood memories involve the lake and swimming and boating.
My grandparents put up a cabin on the lake when I was ten and would spend a few months every summer there. After my grandfather died, my grandmother began spending more time there.
She died last Christmas Eve. She left some money in trust to pay for the cabin's taxes but it will not last long. I've talked to DH and when the fund runs out we (and a few of my uncles and my parents) will split the cost so we can all use it as we all have happy memories and it's what my grandmother would have wanted. I love it there and want my DC to have memories there as well.
The descendent who lived there when I was a child and his wife are long since dead, but his son built a house and has been living there for several years now. He has a grown son who has developmental disabilities who lives with him and it has always been known that there is money set aside so that he will be able to stay in the house when his parents are gone.
As far as I knew, the land was set up so that it could not be sold, and that any proven direct descendent of my great grandparents could settle there as long as they paid their portion of the taxes. Obviously this was an informal agreement as not EVERYONE could live there, but as far as I knew no one wanted to. It's been this way for years.
My mother just told me today that two "cousins" of my dad's (their fathers would have been my grandmother's first cousins, I don't know what that makes them to me) have decided that they are going to sell the land.
I just don't...I'm in shock. They've never, ever had anything to do with it. My parents and grandparents and this other descendent were the ones who paid taxes all these years and looked after the place. It means something to us. Our ancestors never intended it to be sold, ever. I'm in tears at the thought.
The woman leading the charge is a millionaire already. What does she want with it? It means nothing to her and there are people living on it.
Because of the town (it's a tourist spot) the land may be worth a million or maybe even two million dollars. But surely there are at least a hundred of us to split it, maybe more. To me, it's not worth it. I need money more than she ever has or will but I would never sell. I'm in tears at the thought.
Maybe I'm being precious. Maybe I'll get flamed. Maybe she does have the right, at least legally. But oh, it hurts. Just the thought.
AIBU?