“Warning Shot across the Bow”

Please let me take one of these last moments to encourage you and those you love. When dad first came to live with me in early October, we had a lawyer come by the house and draw up dad’s Will, Advanced Directive, and Power of Attorney paperwork. The POA and AD require a Notary stamp, the Will requires two witnesses and a Notary. Thankfully, I was able to get him to sign the POA paperwork a day before we ended up needing it, the day before he went into the hospital for the first time. This, with the HIPPA documents let the doctors talk to me, and let me make decisions according to Dad’s wishes. Otherwise we would have been left at their mercy to do what they wanted to do and not necessarily what Dad wanted. Unfortunately, and herein lies my warning to you. I never got him to sign his will, waiting for a lucid moment AND having two witnesses and a notary on hand(!), the moment never returned… and therefore we are now getting to enter the wonderful world of probate, a long drawn-out process where the Government gets to hold all of Dad’s assets until it decides how many taxes it will retain before letting us have what our father wanted us to share very simply, equally. Oh yeah, and that POA that let me manage his bank account, died with him, so there goes the ability to pay the ever-mounting bills. No matter how young or healthy you think you are, this will not be something you want to deal with when you’re actually staring death in the face. For your family’s sake, settle things now.