Gee whiz. I know this is social media. I know this is the Bear Pit, where things can get rough. This will be a lot like pulling my pants down.
Be as rough as you like.
So I got a notice from the courthouse a few weeks ago. My lawyer got it as well. I knew he was working on it. Seemed to be a rather threatening letter. I read it as, "You are in big trouble Jack!"
Called my lawyer today. Told him to boil it down into layman's terms.
Well basically, what he listed as real estate, the county says is personal property. That is subject to $4 on the thousand....heck I don't know what to call it, let's call it the "king's tribute".
I said hold on a minute...."they want money, that's all they want?" I was laughing about it, it's not funny, but hey, they are threatening to make me a criminal.
Sure I have an attorney, but he is also a friend, and he has told me at every offer he won't take my money in this matter. These matters aren't his specialty, but he knows enough to do this little job.
And here follweth the rant.
On December 14, 2014 I had fallen asleep on the couch in the wee hours. A normal occurance on a Saturday night, as I needed to sleep all day Sunday, to be at work Sunday night.
I'll be brief for a bit, as I don't like to relive this in much detail.
I woke up on the couch at about sunrise, and headed to bed. Went in the bedroom and found my wife rolled out of bed, unresponsive, not breathing, no pulse.
Called 911, started CPR, begged them to hurry. This wasn't how we had planned our lives. I was supposed to go first. EMTs arrived, they eventually took her to the hospital.
They eventually got a pulse and put her on life support. She had no brain function, all her organs were shutting down. Made decision to take her off life support 12/15/14. We had been married 18.5 years, to the day.
I made sure they were going to do an autopsy, we have a daughter so I needed to know why my 40 year old young wife just died like snapping your fingers.
They told me it would take about 3 months. Ok with me, I needed to concentrate on pulling myself and my daughter's together.
I spent about 4 months trying to deal with "her estate" and finally handed it off to my lawyer cause I was in no condition to handle the red tape. Simple fact is, there was no estate. She had a little life insurance, small retirement, of which I was beneficiary, naturally. The rest was various assets owned by the finance companies totalling ~76k. The rub was a family corporation, she was part of, that we never had a LWAT on. It was a huge oversight on both our parts. It provided a monthly check of around $400, but as it couldn't be settled without a death certificate with a COD (autopsy) it was of no help to me.
Long story short. My credit was decimated. To my credit, I managed by some miracle to make the payments for about 8 months, waiting on an autopsy.
The entire months of August and September were spent on the phone with the medical examiners office trying to figure out why they hadn't finished the paperwork. It all boiled down to a clerical error. Cardiac arithmia is what they called it, her grandaddy had it too. Except if you have it in your 40s instead of your 70s, it'll likely kill you. Mostly, I guess subconciously, I thought finding the cause would somehow fix my pain. It didn't.
After nearly 10 months, I had a death certificate I could use to collect the money I needed to pay down the bills. 10 months of slowly ruined credit, sleepless days and nights, god awful nightmares,working up the nerve to pull a trigger and finding two good reasons not to(my daughters). It all nearly drove me crazy.
I'll not recount all the things I went through, but I came out the backside of it all a very changed man.
Of all the epiphanies, here is one I came away with; money is a tool, nothing more. I'd still give all I have, for more time.
I thought all this stuff was settled. I guess the county found a way to extract something from me, good for them. That's why I laughed. "Money? That's what they want? Their due? Their tribute? Is that all?"
I just want to get on with the life I have left. Not the one I chose, but the one I have, to do the best I can.
I figured out pretty quick I had to walk away from what was, and live for what IS. That's the only reason I'm pissed about it, this makes me relive my darkest days.
I can't write them a check soon enough to suit me. And yes I'm gonna make a point to ask them, "Are we done here?"
Be as rough as you like.
So I got a notice from the courthouse a few weeks ago. My lawyer got it as well. I knew he was working on it. Seemed to be a rather threatening letter. I read it as, "You are in big trouble Jack!"
Called my lawyer today. Told him to boil it down into layman's terms.
Well basically, what he listed as real estate, the county says is personal property. That is subject to $4 on the thousand....heck I don't know what to call it, let's call it the "king's tribute".
I said hold on a minute...."they want money, that's all they want?" I was laughing about it, it's not funny, but hey, they are threatening to make me a criminal.
Sure I have an attorney, but he is also a friend, and he has told me at every offer he won't take my money in this matter. These matters aren't his specialty, but he knows enough to do this little job.
And here follweth the rant.
On December 14, 2014 I had fallen asleep on the couch in the wee hours. A normal occurance on a Saturday night, as I needed to sleep all day Sunday, to be at work Sunday night.
I'll be brief for a bit, as I don't like to relive this in much detail.
I woke up on the couch at about sunrise, and headed to bed. Went in the bedroom and found my wife rolled out of bed, unresponsive, not breathing, no pulse.
Called 911, started CPR, begged them to hurry. This wasn't how we had planned our lives. I was supposed to go first. EMTs arrived, they eventually took her to the hospital.
They eventually got a pulse and put her on life support. She had no brain function, all her organs were shutting down. Made decision to take her off life support 12/15/14. We had been married 18.5 years, to the day.
I made sure they were going to do an autopsy, we have a daughter so I needed to know why my 40 year old young wife just died like snapping your fingers.
They told me it would take about 3 months. Ok with me, I needed to concentrate on pulling myself and my daughter's together.
I spent about 4 months trying to deal with "her estate" and finally handed it off to my lawyer cause I was in no condition to handle the red tape. Simple fact is, there was no estate. She had a little life insurance, small retirement, of which I was beneficiary, naturally. The rest was various assets owned by the finance companies totalling ~76k. The rub was a family corporation, she was part of, that we never had a LWAT on. It was a huge oversight on both our parts. It provided a monthly check of around $400, but as it couldn't be settled without a death certificate with a COD (autopsy) it was of no help to me.
Long story short. My credit was decimated. To my credit, I managed by some miracle to make the payments for about 8 months, waiting on an autopsy.
The entire months of August and September were spent on the phone with the medical examiners office trying to figure out why they hadn't finished the paperwork. It all boiled down to a clerical error. Cardiac arithmia is what they called it, her grandaddy had it too. Except if you have it in your 40s instead of your 70s, it'll likely kill you. Mostly, I guess subconciously, I thought finding the cause would somehow fix my pain. It didn't.
After nearly 10 months, I had a death certificate I could use to collect the money I needed to pay down the bills. 10 months of slowly ruined credit, sleepless days and nights, god awful nightmares,working up the nerve to pull a trigger and finding two good reasons not to(my daughters). It all nearly drove me crazy.
I'll not recount all the things I went through, but I came out the backside of it all a very changed man.
Of all the epiphanies, here is one I came away with; money is a tool, nothing more. I'd still give all I have, for more time.
I thought all this stuff was settled. I guess the county found a way to extract something from me, good for them. That's why I laughed. "Money? That's what they want? Their due? Their tribute? Is that all?"
I just want to get on with the life I have left. Not the one I chose, but the one I have, to do the best I can.
I figured out pretty quick I had to walk away from what was, and live for what IS. That's the only reason I'm pissed about it, this makes me relive my darkest days.
I can't write them a check soon enough to suit me. And yes I'm gonna make a point to ask them, "Are we done here?"
