Some stuff I just don't want to deal with...

[geminigirl]

My Mom sent an email today with the subject "Important Information"

I assumed it had something to do with their trip to visit us next week. I was wrong.

It was the name, address, phone number and email of the attorney who will handle their estates when they're gone or when, as my Mom put it "we can no longer think for ourselves."

The rest of the email said "There are other things I will give you like insurance policies that will have to wait til I get to it."

I'm already a co-signer on their safe deposit box-Mom made me do that more than ten years ago when they when to England.

It's not something I was unaware of the need to deal with, just not really something I want to deal with.

Comments

[ladysmith.livejournal.com]

When I was sixteen, my mother made me read through the contracts for the burial plots she was buying through the VA for herself and for my father. She wanted me to translate from legalese to English, so she could understand what she was signing.

I totally understand where you're coming from.

[geminigirl]

Thanks.

What makes me kind of...twitchy about it is that the email went only to me, not to my sister. (I wouldn't have expected it to go to my brother.)

My response was "I'll make an electronic file for it online and print a hard copy and put it into our fire box.)

[ladysmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that would make me twitchy, too.

I forget, are you the oldest? She might be taking it for granted that you are the one who will take care of the others.

[geminigirl]

It's mildly complicated. I am my mother's oldest, and the oldest of the children that my mother and father have together, but my father has two children with his first wife, however 1. they would have no reason to be involved if it were my mother who passed, and 2. the relationship between my older siblings and my father is strained enough that I wouldn't expect them to be involved in any of this sort of thing-it would fall to me and my younger sister with limited input from my younger brother.

But yes, it's likely that by virtue of the fact that I am the oldest, there are things that will probably end up being my responsibility.

[compulsivelyme.livejournal.com]

I know it's kind of hard to see, but as someone who has watched friends struggle when their loved ones didn't have any wills-- it is better, WAY better, that they made those plans now.

[vix.livejournal.com]

My parents both separately asked me to be their power of attorney for healthcare and the executor of each of their wills (they're divorced). My brother is the eldest, but has his hands full with four little ones and I am more in touch with the folks and know more about their medical histories and such.

It's a heavy burden and I don't look forward to the day when I have to carry out my duties.

[geminigirl]

Oh, no question that it's better that they made these plans. I just don't want to deal with them right now.

[slfisher.livejournal.com]

I know you don't want to deal with it, but believe me, it's better this way.