Attorney and Estate TAX question..

[dmccarty]

Harv,

I'm a bit behind in my TBN in reading but I just read your note about your mother's passing. I'm very sorry to hear this news. I was reading another thread and got the impression that maybe this had happened but I was not sure.

Believe it or not I think of your mother from time to time and I have never met her! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif There was a thread a while back about you making her a path from the the house to the mail box. Some of the ideas in the discussion are relevent to one of my To-Dos and everytime I think of building my driveway I think of your mother walking down to the mailbox. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I have a feeling that everytime I look at my driveway in the future I'm going to be thinking about your mother walking to the mail box! What a strange world! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

When my grandmother died a few years ago my dad had to deal with the estate. Not fun at all. The will was contested by a low life distant relative who did not have a case but who was suckered into thinking she had a case by a no good lawyer. Eventually, they lost the case but it put my dad through hell. He had enough to deal with after the death of his mother. He certainly did not need to deal with a lawsuit. My grandmother was a school teacher who raised four children by herself. Its not like she had millions of dollars in the bank so there was not really much of an estate to fight over in the first place.

Condolances!
Dan McCarty

 

[Harv]

Thanks, Dan.

It's still a little weird going up to the property now. Everything up there brings back memories of Mom, of course, but that walking path especially tugs at the ol' heartstrings right now. Once weed-control season starts this spring, I will likely blend it back in with the rest of that area, but at the moment, I couldn't possibly touch it.

You'd think there would be at least a little joy in becoming the proud new owner of 42 acres, but between the sorrow and the probate proceedings, I can see it's going to be a gradual process. Mom always wanted me to have the place and now it is mine, but so far I still feel as though I'm taking care of it for her, not myself. My dad passed away some 12 years ago, but to this day, everytime I enter his, I mean my woodshop, I feel him looking over my shoulder. It's for that very reason that I make sure I put all the tools back where they belong at the end of each day up there.

And I find myself apologizing for parking a big ol' orange tractor in there, too.

 

[dmccarty]

Harv,

Yep, its a very gradual process dealing with loss. I know for a couple of years I could not even deal with the thought of seeing my grandmothers old house. The family had to sell the house which was very hard. I'm lucky in that I did not have to help clean out the house and get it ready to market.

I THINK I could drive by the house now and when my daughter gets older I'll take her to the house.

I only knew my wife's grandfather for a few years before he passed which was far to short a time. Everytime I'm on the family farm and take a walk I feel him some how. When I go into the barns or his workshop its like he is still there.... I guess that is what happens when you get tied to one place for a lifetime.......

Later...
Dan