Re: Portland (taking this back to...)

About that hotel...Uh. Haven't made any reservations yet. Not sure
when I'll be able to do so. I still mean to, though.

On Thursday, my Mom laughed at a joke in the monthly administrative
meeting at the senior center. She then fell over out of her chair and
never woke again. Though, she was technically alive for another 45
minutes while they worked on her before they called it, she was
effectively dead then. Massive congestive heart failure at 59.

I am her sole heir with no will. She was a life-long hoarder and the
family historian. I will be in my home town in the middle of nowhere
at least half time for a month or more at this point sorting it out,
even with all my immediate family helping.

Since I have the soapbox right now:

* Go tell the people that matter to you that love them, even if you're
not talking or getting along.

* Make a will.

* Talk over what you want to happen when you die with your next of kin
and PUT IT IN WRITING.

* Even if don't have a lot of money, start paying into a pre-paid
funeral account. My mother was permanently disabled and on a limited
income. The only reason that I can get things going two days after her
death is that a friend decided that no one should have to wait to
cremate their mother while the money is raised and cut a check on site
for the full amount.

* What are you waiting for? GO TELL THEM THAT YOU LOVE THEM NOW!

At least I had a pretty good idea of what Mom wanted.

--
Maida 'Mac/Lys' Cain

"I think maybe we started to forget when we stopped looking up.
Instead of remembering there was a world of sky up there above our
heads, we'd sit on the ground and look at our feet."
- Jack Daw in Charles de Lint's  Someplace to be Flying