The Act of Giving

I was completely amazed about this story that I read on the ABC news website yesterday.

“When her husband died in the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, relatives, friends and strangers opened their hearts and their wallets to Kathy Trant, donating millions of dollars to Trant and her three children. The money was meant to compensate for the income Dan Trant would have used to support his family for years to come...Fewer than four years after the attacks, she has blown through most of the money, and is coming out with her story now to warn others against the trappings of chronic spending, a major problem among Americans...At the time of his death, Dan Trant, 40, was quickly moving up the ladder as a bond trader at Cantor Fitzgerald, making $130,000 in addition to tens of thousands in bonuses in his final year. Based on his estimated future earnings, the Federal Victim Compensation Fund awarded Kathy Trant $4.2 million, of which she received half. She got another $3 million from friends and family."

So here is a partial list of some of her spendings since her husband's death:

-Trant gave her former housekeeper $15,000 to buy a home in El Salvador.

-Trant spent $70,000 to take six friends to the Super Bowl.

-She spent $30,000 for a trip for 20 to the Bahamas.
-Trant spent $1.5 million to nearly triple the size of her suburban New York home.

-$350,000 on the back yard, installing a full basketball court also equipped for volleyball, tennis and Rollerblading, a heated pool and a hot tub.

-Trant designed a shrine of her husband's mementos, and put it on display in her new red-white-and-blue den. She added sports memorabilia to her walls, including a Boston Celtics ball autographed by players.

-Trant's walk-in closet houses a $500,000 shoe collection, gowns by Versace and Capelli that go for $5,000 each and Fendi and Judith Leiber handbags, also $5,000 per bag.

Now experts say that over-spending is not uncommon among families who have lost loved ones and are compensated for their death with money. A Stanford University study estimates that 8 percent of Americans, or 23.6 million people, suffer from compulsive shopping disorder. The money is seen as blood money and people feel the need to spend the money to compensate for the lose of their family member.

Currently, Trant is down to her last $500,000. A stay-at-home mom for the last 20 years, she and a friend are opening a hair-removal and cosmetic tattoo shop in East Norwich, Conn.

I read this article and found it absolutely ludicrous that this could happen. I know that, in theory, there are explanations for why this happens and I am not judging Kathy Trant on how she coped with the death of her husband (because I have no reason to place judgement). But it just makes me angry to know that monetary donations used to help alleviate the burdens of a family during a sudden lose of the main breadwinner in the family, were used unwisely and frivolously.

Now if I donated money to this family and then found out that the money may have been used to buy a home for Trant's housekeeper, let's just say that I would not be very happy. But that's just me.