Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Some Things That Happened After I Got Home From The Military

Not All Who Wander Are Lost

A couple months after I got home my step-mother had gall bladder surgery. She came out of the hospital with some gallstones in a plastic vial. Within a few weeks of the surgery she died. She was buried in a cemetery in an area in Northern Wisconsin that had the same name as the area where she was from in Finland.

A month or so later my dad died. We all joke about how the shock of surviving my step-mother killed him. She had had several husbands and out-lived all except my dad. Not quite sure how many she had, around four or five.

After my dad's funeral, my brothers and I went to a lawyer to arrange for my dad's estate to be probated. He had too many things to not go through probate. If the only thing had been the house or a car, probate wouldn't have been necessary. He had a house, car and a pickup and four sons who got to divvy up these things. Also there was the "Ranch UP on the Tundra" but my name was already on the deed with a survivorship clause. My two oldest brothers lived in states halfway across the country and my next oldest brother had a full time job working rotating shifts. As I was unemployed at the time, I was made the administrator of my dad's estate, such as it was.

Being an administrator wasn't too difficult, had to make a number of trips to the lawyer's office for various things. I was glad we had gotten a lawyer to do the probate because a step-daughter from one of my step-mother's other marriages came around raising all kinds of hell about how she should get everything and my family wasn't entitled to anything from my step-mother's estate. I guess the money she got in the form of mutual funds and/or bonds wasn't enough for her. Michigan law states that everything goes to the surviving spouse, which was my dad because he outlived her. After listening to her (the evil step-daughter) for awhile ranting about she should get everything and we should get nothing, I told her to go see my lawyer. After she left I called my lawyer and warned him that she was on her way to see him. He said, "Good, I'll show where the bear shit in the buckwheat". When I next talked to my lawyer, he said she was the most miserable bitch he'd met. I never heard from her again. I sure was glad I had a lawyer to back me up.

What took the longest was waiting for the house to sell. The vehicles were no problem, we decided I would get the truck and my brother in Georgia would get the car. The value of the car and truck would be figured into the total and be part of our shares. I drove the car down to GA and brought it to my brother. It was in Dec and at the time could not get used to Xmas music with no snow on the ground, so I came home the weekend before Xmas and was greeted by several feet of snow. Anywho, after the house sold (it took like two years), I spilt the money up and sent it to my brothers. By then I had sold the truck in order to make it through the strike at the place where I worked at the time.

Here is a picture of the car at my brother's house.

4 comments:

Kulkuri said...
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Kulkuri said...
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Kulkuri said...
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Kulkuri said...
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