David leaned forward.
“Mr. Mercer, perhaps you should come to my office. This is a conversation that requires some privacy.”
I followed them to a corner office with glass walls and a view of the Cleveland skyline. Patricia closed the door behind us. David sat behind the desk and typed something into his computer.
“The initial deposit in March 1971 was $8,000,” he said, reading from the screen. “Quite a large sum for that time. Your grandfather then established an automatic transfer of $200 per month from a checking account at the same institution. That transfer continued uninterrupted for fifty-two years.”
“Fifty-two years of two hundred dollars a month,” I said, doing the math in my head. “That’s about a hundred and twenty-five thousand in deposits.”
“Yes. But this was a high-yield savings account with compound interest. And in 1985, your grandfather converted a portion of the funds into certificates of deposit, which were then rolled over repeatedly at favorable rates. In 1992, he also purchased dividend-reinvesting shares in several blue-chip stocks through our investment arm.”
“My grandfather did all that? He barely finished high school.”
“Someone did it. The records show the decisions were made in person at this branch with proper identification.”
David turned the monitor so I could see it.
“Mr. Mercer, the current balance of the account, including all associated investment holdings, is $3,412,647.31.”
