When my bf's Dad got sick he didn't want to do any substantive discussions with people about inheritance, even when he knew he was terminal. He was one of those avoider-types. He left no will, but did say he wanted everything left to his (third) wife, a very needy and self-centered drama queen who complained all the way through how hard it was on her while managing to be completely ignorant of his care or medications. (If I sound nasty and unfairly harsh on her, please know she chain-smoked in their house through the entire final year of his illness, during which he was on oxygen and slowly dying of lung disease.)
My bf had a conversation with his Dad in which he point-blank asked for the only thing of his Dad's he really wanted, and his Dad got kind of huffy about why they couldn't sort all that out *after* he was dead, but his Dad did agree that he should have that thing. He also made copies of old slides and photos his Dad had of his childhood. His Dad also went and made sure he gave him a shoebox that he wanted to make sure my bf got. Bf didn't open it til later.
So, his Dad dies. No funeral, Dad didn't want one. The wife decides that no one can have anything of her husband's, including all the photos of their childhood that bf wasn't able to copy, that have nothing to do with her and which took place fully 30 years before Dad met her. Bf goes to take his thing and third wife acts like she will simply die if any object of his is removed from the house, and bf says, no, Dad agreed it was mine and you were there. I'm taking it. (He lives on the other side of the continent from them.) Third wife, no doubt sensing he will not back down, backs off.
Years later BTW, grandchildren still do not have the thing their Granpa wanted them to have, because third wife wouldn't let them take it at the time and someone has to go all the way cross country to get it.
So back to the box that of all the things his father owned, was the only thing he really made sure to give to his son while he was still alive. Bf opens the box, and what is in it?
Why, the wedding photos to the second wife. Not a long marriage, a few years, but he kept the photos for 25 years.