Heirs to Wealth Untold
Recently a teenager in Switzerland became one of the wealthiest women in the world. On January 29, 2003—her 18th birthday—Athina Roussel, granddaughter of the late Aristotle Onassis, inherited an estimated $US2.7 billion, according to the Boston Herald (January 30, 2003).
Properties and assets she received include two Greek islands, a private jet, the Olympic Tower on New York’s prestigious Fifth Avenue, an apartment on Avenue Foch in Paris, the Metropole Palace Hotel in Monte Carlo, a Japanese electronics company, an Iranian chemical company, businesses in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, and innumerable works of art. Oh, she also inherited cash deposits in some 200 banks.
There's more. When she turns 21, she’ll become boss of the Onassis Foundation and receive another $US2 billion.
Envious? Think again. Although Athina would seem to be an easy candidate for the happiest woman on earth, her life has been far from happy. One article about her is aptly titled, “Hostage to fortune” (www.smh.com.au). The title is not off the mark when you discover that the child heiress has been heavily guarded for years against unknown, would-be kidnappers.
She is “pitied and envied in equal measure by society's gossips and their magazines.” At the tender age of three, she lost her mother to a reported drug overdose. Her childhood was “tainted by bitter legal wrangling over control of the estate” (www.hellomagazine.com). Her grandfather died in deep despair after losing his only son to a tragic death. Hopefully she can turn things around and use this wealth in a way that will bring her happiness in the future.
Miss Roussel’s inheritance sounds like a lot compared to what most of us have. But consider how small it is compared to God’s promised gifts to His children. Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5).
And “the earth” comprises immeasurably more than two small islands floating in the Aegean Sea.
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Articles of interest:
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This is an extract from June 2004
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