My neighbor invited me to a luncheon at the church for single adults. I told him that I would not know anybody there. He assured me I would. He was wrong. I didn't know anybody and on top of that I was the youngest one there and I didn't have a walker. WTH! I'm old, but not THAT old. Not only that, but there was a program planned for after lunch. I just was not interested in being there, so I left after lunch. Sorry, Mr. Neighbor, I'm just not ready for that yet!
Being a former party animal, one would think that my Sunday School party would be boring to me. So not true. It was awesome! Such great people in my class. The name of the class is "We Care" and we truly do care about each other and others. One of our members just opened a brand new event facility in downtown Minden called Orleans on Main. He rents this building for $650 for events. It is beautiful and has tables with beautiful decorations and real table cloths. He hosted the party there for free and even catered the event himself. He is a top notch guy who really gives back to his community. We each brought a new toy and gave them to Toys for Tots.Two Marines were there to receive the gifts.
Tomorrow night I will be going back to the same facility, but that will be our Mardi Gras krewe party....much different scenario! Also, tomorrow is our neighborhood brunch. OK....I guess I am still a party animal!!!
Without even one roadblock, I got all my assignments done today which included calling the companies holding Dad's life insurance policies. They were all very cooperative and sorry for my loss. Now we have to start a file to keep all the stuff in that we will need upon our mom's death. It will save us lots of headaches at that time. We are having to place a value upon everything at the time of his death...land, vehicles, oil and gas revenues, timber...EVERYTHING. It's going to be really bad after Mom is gone because she in in a part of undivided acreage. YIKES! What a headache that will be to get that divided up between 9 grandchildren after Mom and her sister are gone. Her family could just never agree on the division. There is still $20,000 in my grandfather's checking account and he died in 1986. Mom just pays property taxes from it every year and it just sits there earning ZERO percent!!! Now....if I could just get motivated for Christmas. I thought the cold weather would help, but it hasn't YET! I told Mom today that I was glad Dad didn't have to be cold this year. He hated cold weather and was always cold.
Step 1 was to find all the stuff the lawyer needed after Dad died. Today we went to the lawyer for the first visit. Wow! Lots of stuff to do. I have a list of 5 things to do as my homework! Tomorrow I will be calling the companies where Dad had life insurance policies. One of his IRA'a had a life insurance policy that came with it for $1000 if the owner dies from lung cancer or brain cancer. He died from both, but I have to get doctor records to prove it. Mom thought his will was at the lawyer's office, but they did not find it. She and my brother were going to the bank to look in the safety deposit box. I already tried, but since my name was not on the box, I was unable to look in it. Won't really matter if they don't find it because Louisiana law already provides the exact same things the will would say. Half to Mom with full usufruct until her death when it all passes to my brother and me.
UPDATE: The will was in the box at the bank!
It's been a long time since I failed to send Christmas cards, but it is looking more and more like this may be the year. I simply cannot get in the mood to do it and I usually enjoy doing it every year. I sure do enjoy hearing from others at Christmas time. I think most of the people on my Christmas list know that I just lost my dad, so they will probably understand.
Woo Hoo! My brother will be back tonight. I have missed him this week.
I also got to have lunch with our lunch bunch today. Seems like a long time since I have been able to meet them for lunch and it was nice.
All my buds down in South Texas are expecting snow tomorrow. They even had snow last year in December while I, at 200 miles further north, have had none! What's up with that? I want snow. Of course, if my driveway iced up I would be stuck because it goes uphill!!!
Mom was no better today and in a great deal of pain. She took a darvocet just to be able to go to the doctor, but we went. He thought her foot might have looked a little better, but it surely didn't feel better. She got another high powered antibiotic shot and we will give it one more day to get better. X-ray did not show any bone involvement with infection and blood work was OK, so he was willing to give her one more day before admitting her and putting her on IV antibiotics. She is home resting, I hope.
I borrowed my brother's new carpet steam cleaning machine and got my carpet clean. I don't have very much carpet, but it is light in color and looks much better.
On a very positive note, that stuff doc prescribed for my cough worked miracles! I SLEPT! It is so freakin' cold that I am not motivated to go in the attic and get Christmas stuff, so Christmas cards may be late or non-existent. Merry Christmas and Andrea Bocelli ROCKS, by the way!
I took Mom to the doc today and ended up with her at the hospital getting her foot x-rayed. Doc is afraid of infection getting in the bone and traveling to her heart or somewhere else. He's also afraid of a staph infection. He actually wanted to put her in the hospital on IV antibiotics, but we opted to get a shot today and tomorrow and finish the levoquin that our cousin gave her yesterday. If my brother wasn't on vacation, we probably would have gone on to the hospital, but he would feel like he needed to get back home if Mom was in the hospital. We didn't want him to cut his trip short. He needs the break. If her foot continues to be swollen and painful, then we will opt for the IV treatment. Of course, doc heard my atrocious cough while I was with Mom and he prescribed some industrial strength cough medicine. It seems to be helping so far...it's cherutussin AC with codiene. Maybe now I can stop coughing long enough to go in the attic and find some Christmas stuff and get with the program. A little snowfall on Friday might help me get started!!
My brother looks in on Mom several times a day and I do once a day, but tomorrow he leaves for a little much needed R&R. I will be checking on her more frequently although I don't live as close as he does, so it requires more effort for me. We have some local guys on her call list to come pick her up if she falls. Her foot needs attention again, so I will be taking her to Bossier tomorrow morning to let doc look at it. On Tuesday she has another appointment, so I will take her to that as well.
how wonderful I thought he was! I don't think he did!
I worked on Dad's berry plants today. He has a whole row of different types of berries and they really needed to be tied up. I did that and mowed all around them. Dad would be proud. He wanted that done before he died, but we just didn't get to it. His little stool that he sat on while working on his berries was still up there because that is where he did his last bit of work in the garden. I tried to move it right after he died, but I couldn't. Today I moved it because I needed to mow there. I know he is smiling down on me right now. He loved his berries.
We also talked about what to do with Dad's clothes. I guess that will be our next task, but we must do it. Every little thing will be HARD!
Today was my 67th birthday, my first ever without my daddy. I thought about him all day....well, between all the coughs. All I have done was visit my mom and lie down all day. There was a lot of stuff that I needed to do because I am hosting my family on Thanksgiving....well, all 4 of us! Tomorrow I am going to lunch with my mom and sister-in-law and some of their church friends, so maybe I can get something done after that. At least, I will be forced to get dressed.
My cousin took me to Ernest's Orleans restaurant tonight for my birthday. It was my first time at this restaurant and I must admit it was awesome. Just one complaint....they need parking lot redo!!!
Also, today I had the duty of picking up the death certificates from the funeral home. Who knew we would need 10 death certificates!!!! Turns out every single account or name change requires a death certificate. I guess we can meet with the lawyer now and get Dad's name off everything and get Mom's name on everything. Her name is already on most everything, but there are still a lot of things that must be done.
