The Saga Continues

A new day has dawned.

Yesterday was clean-up day. We went through everything in the house and there are now bags and boxes everywhere. Goodwill is sending a truck over in a few hours to grab tons and tons of stuff. Then I'll take the food over to the pantry. My brother and I have divied up the stuff that we're going to keep. Since he works for a transportation company, he thinks he can arrange to have a company truck come here and snag all of the big items. Not that there are many, but enough.

We went to the funeral home yesterday to retrieve the items the old man had on him when he died. We also outlayed $2800. Sheesh! Death is an expensive proposition, lemme tell ya. So, at the moment I'm waiting on his ashes to arrive from the crematorium up in Shreveport and for the death certificate to be issued. Once I have those, I can start cancelling everything, notifying beauracracies, and pay bills. And I'll need to get a dumpster. I hope to be able to leave here on Thursday or Friday but want the house empty, the utilities shut off, and the pipes drained.

We weren't able to find a will so I'm looking at the prospect of a long, arduous trek in probate court. My dad's brother called last night. He kept prodding me about the fate of my dad's ashes so I knew something was up. Well, he wants the ashes and has a plot in which to bury them. On top of this, he said he'd spring for a tombstone so "we could all have a place to visit him". Very oddly but also very touching. When I spoke to my aunt, she said that my dad and uncle talked to each other weekly and had gotten "pretty close". It's a weird prospect to me of having a burial site to go visit in Florida but I suppose I'll get around to going there eventually.

Well, I am off to sort through the stuff in the garage...