UPPER EAST SIDE — A Buddhist immigrant remained Zen-like when she learned last week that her socialite boss had once planned to leave her a $10 million penthouse — but then decided not to go through with the om-azing gift.
Upper East Side dowager Amber Lightfoot Walker wrote a will in 2012 that left her Park Avenue pad to Lalitangi Balasuriya, a home aide who took care of her sick son for 20 years.
But Walker made several revisions to her will before her death in 2014 — first deciding to give Balasuriya $25,000 instead of the penthouse and ultimately opting not to leave anything to the aide.
Balasuriya, 68, wasn’t aware Walker had put her in any will until DNAinfo New York informed her last week.
But the mother of two and grandmother of three shrugged off the news that she lost out on a life-changing windfall, claiming money didn’t matter to her.
“We get everything we need from our parents. So what more?” she said.
“I’m not upset. I’m not greedy. I’m quite happy.”
Walker, an Australian immigrant who married a Manhattan business titan, had an $18 million fortune when she died at 95 on Nov. 27, 2014. Her husband, Angus Walker, died in 1985 and her only child, Christopher, died in 2012.
In court papers filed earlier this year in surrogate’s court, a lawyer for the Manhattan Public Administrator’s Office explained how the socialite scuttled her plans to make Balasuriya extremely rich. The public administrator's office reviewed Walker's will to determine whether any heirs had a right to challenge it.
The public administrator's lawyer, Glen Opell, said that R. Scott Johnston, the attorney who drafted Walker’s wills, informed him that Walker bailed on bequeathing Balasuriya the penthouse because the two had a “contentious relationship over the years.”
The apartment, in a cooperative building with a doorman, has two bedrooms and four bathrooms. Real estate brokerage firm Douglas Elliman lists the penthouse as currently in contract with an asking price of $9.950 million.
Johnston said Walker later nixed the $25,000 bequest to Balasuriya after a “final falling out” shortly before her last will, according to Opell’s filing.
Balasuriya said she and Walker didn’t have a contentious relationship and didn’t know of any final disagreement.
But she described Walker as difficult.
“She wasn’t nice at all to anybody,” said Balasuriya. “I took her with a grain of salt.”
An immigrant from Sri Lanka, Balasuriya said she is a Buddhist who follows the five precepts, the religion’s moral code.
“I don’t do any harm to anybody,” she said.
Walker hired Balasuriya more than 20 years ago to take care of her son after he had brain surgery and required an aide to get around.
Balasuriya lived in an apartment owned by Walker on East 93rd Street and Christopher Walker lived in a unit in the same building.
Balasuriya said she cared deeply for Christopher, accompanying him on trips around the world, taking him for neighborhood walks and entertaining his friends who visited him.
When he died at 58 three years ago, she was heartbroken, she said.
“I still feel it was like losing a son,” she said.
After Christopher’s death, Balasuriya continued to run errands for Walker. She recalled Walker occasionally asking her what she wanted from her estate, including the apartment, but she never answered her.
“I didn’t talk to her about it, you know?” Balasuriya said. “I didn’t think about the money. I thought it was a nuisance.”
She also assumed that Walker’s overtures weren’t real and said Walker never told her that she had actually written bequests into her will.
Balasuriya said she is moving out of the East 93rd Street apartment next week because the executors of Walker’s estate want to wind down its assets and sell the unit.
She said she plans on staying with her friends and her children, but will miss the Upper East Side.
“I have a place to go, but I’m used to the area,” she said.
Walker did keep some staff in her will. She left $50,000 to her housekeeper, Nancy Quezada. She also made a $3 million bequest to the 92nd Street Y.
Quezada, who doesn’t speak English, declined to comment through her daughter.
Johnston did not respond to a request for comment.
Richard Siderowf, who is a co-executor of Walker’s estate, declined to comment.
