A long road.....

My father passed away in his sleep on June 10th around 3:00 pm. My aunt pointed out that I was due June 10th and I was born at 3:00 pm. She thought it was a cosmic sign about how important I was in his life. I thought the hardest part would be losing him, however the aftermath of taking care of his end-of-life issues have been very difficult as well. The hospital my father were my father was staying appointed a payee for his bills. When he passed away he did not have a will or life insurance. The only way to take care of his funeral expenses was through the cash account he had in savings. The payee would not release his funds to the funeral home because she was still paying his other bills, such as rent and power even though he was deceased. I have since found that this was illegal and she had no right to continue to pay bills after he passed away. Even though I am the only next of Kin and was able to make end-of-life choices for him, I still have to file in probate court just to access his savings for his funeral expenses. It has been discovered that the payee was and maybe still is stealing from his account. I have to wait 30 days after his death before filing with probate court. In that time, this payee can continue to deplete his account. The funeral home he was at originally, told me that my father was beginning to "smell" on ice and that they were not going to send him for cremation until they knew how his account was being paid. They said to give them a call during the weekend if I could " come up with" some more money. I was frantic knowing that my father had almost enough in his account to pay for his funeral, and the thought of him sitting there over the weekend was very emotional for me. I contacted another funeral home in my city and they moved him without any issue. I am so grateful for the kindness of the new funeral home. Needless to say, this has been a nightmare. This has shown me that my husband and I need to make sure everything is set up for our deaths so that our children never have to go through this.