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Visiting My Parents
Jan. 20th, 2023 09:03 pmA fairly eventful New Year so far.
The nuisance slip-and-fall lawsuit--the one that has had a pile of paperwork stacked up in my bedroom--has finally been settled by our insurance company. I don't expect our rates to spike (the settlement on our end wasn't substantial), so after years of delays, this mess has been cleared off the table. Whew.
Speaking of endless paperwork: I am almost, ALMOST finished settling my mother's estate. Nearly all the assets have been distributed, and almost all the bills have been paid--with one exception. I'm in no rush to pay that bill, though--if I ever do. (If a collection agency comes calling some time in the future, fine...I'll deal with it then.)
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Right after New Year's, I went out to New Jersey to visit my parents at the cemetery. They have adjoining plots provided by the Oddfellows Lodge, purchased, I think, when my sister and I were kids. Even though they died more than twelve years apart, I got my mother's headstone from the same monument company as my dad's. (They look like a matched set.)
I drove out to the cemetery on the 2nd, a holiday Monday. (Got lost on the way, of course.) I was expecting a horde of visiting relatives...but the cemetery was almost deserted. So I walked along the pathways toward my parents' graveside, passing row after row of silent tombstones. (Yes, it was quite eerie.)
You know, I always found it a little weird when people talked to their relatives' graves in the movies. Yes, I realize it's supposed to be an emotional release, but I never really believed it would do any good for the visitor. Well, this time I gave it a try. And...it helped. I'd been carrying around all this tension from the responsibility of tending to my mother's finances, and I could finally let it go. (With that one exception, of course.)
Maybe, now that I can see my way clear of my role as de facto executor, I can focus on building for the future--not just for my own child, but helping my sister and my niece and my grand nephews. (And--somewhere down the line--maybe my nephew too. But that's not going to be easy.)
**************
Hope everything is going okay for everybody out there. (I might post something pop culture-ish soon, but I haven't really been in the mood.) Take care.
The nuisance slip-and-fall lawsuit--the one that has had a pile of paperwork stacked up in my bedroom--has finally been settled by our insurance company. I don't expect our rates to spike (the settlement on our end wasn't substantial), so after years of delays, this mess has been cleared off the table. Whew.
Speaking of endless paperwork: I am almost, ALMOST finished settling my mother's estate. Nearly all the assets have been distributed, and almost all the bills have been paid--with one exception. I'm in no rush to pay that bill, though--if I ever do. (If a collection agency comes calling some time in the future, fine...I'll deal with it then.)
*********************
Right after New Year's, I went out to New Jersey to visit my parents at the cemetery. They have adjoining plots provided by the Oddfellows Lodge, purchased, I think, when my sister and I were kids. Even though they died more than twelve years apart, I got my mother's headstone from the same monument company as my dad's. (They look like a matched set.)
I drove out to the cemetery on the 2nd, a holiday Monday. (Got lost on the way, of course.) I was expecting a horde of visiting relatives...but the cemetery was almost deserted. So I walked along the pathways toward my parents' graveside, passing row after row of silent tombstones. (Yes, it was quite eerie.)
You know, I always found it a little weird when people talked to their relatives' graves in the movies. Yes, I realize it's supposed to be an emotional release, but I never really believed it would do any good for the visitor. Well, this time I gave it a try. And...it helped. I'd been carrying around all this tension from the responsibility of tending to my mother's finances, and I could finally let it go. (With that one exception, of course.)
Maybe, now that I can see my way clear of my role as de facto executor, I can focus on building for the future--not just for my own child, but helping my sister and my niece and my grand nephews. (And--somewhere down the line--maybe my nephew too. But that's not going to be easy.)
**************
Hope everything is going okay for everybody out there. (I might post something pop culture-ish soon, but I haven't really been in the mood.) Take care.
