Endgame

 Blessings Darlings!  This is the conclusion of the story of what we've been up to.

BACK TO THE SHIT

Mother In Law did well for a while with rehab and such.  Then ... things started to go south.  And she broke the same bone again.  She had VERY severe osteoporosis - she'd spent most of the past 5 years seated.  Very little walking, no exercise.  Her bones were pretty much like chalk.  So right below the metal plates, the bone broke again. 

Back to the hospital.  Back to deciding on surgery.  Again, yes on surgery because it was the best way to prevent bed sores and pain.  But she was exceedingly bruised, and the blood thinners were complicating everything.  Surgery was being scheduled and then delayed daily, waiting for the blood thinners to leave her system.

Unfortunately, she kept sinking while awaiting surgery.  Chelsea kept visiting, and gave us reports.  In early January she was barely conscious, then she was not conscious. It was pretty clear that she'd be passing the weekend of January 4th, but like many people .... at some level she knew when family was around her and she felt it was rude to leave when she had visitors.  On January 5, as Chelsea and her boyfriend were on the road back home after spending most of the weekend with her, she passed away.

SADNESS

Well, there isn't much to say about that.  It's rough.

BACK TO THE SHIT, AGAIN

So, it's about 3.5 weeks after Norma died.  We are still waiting for the death certificate, so we can cancel the Medicaid contact, and officially tell Social Security and give Chelsea the death benefit (she covered the cremation expenses) (and, what a shock, her boyfriend wants us to NOT tell SS so her checks will keep coming - no, of course we're not going to participate in fraud), and so we can file the life insurance policy, and file the will.  The H is executor of the estate.  But we'll need to contact yet another lawyer at random for that. 

Oh, at least the lawyer for the guardianship returned most of the money we gave him, only charging for the initial meeting .... which was plenty pricey, if you ask me.  Tho' I know you didn't ask me.

We were lucky - we all had a good idea what my MIL would have wanted during most of this.  She had a living will.  She had talked at length to Chelsea about funeral stuff, and CH and I agreed on what Chelsea remembered. 

The boyfriend is .... expecting the family to help him pay for the house expenses.  We fully expect to pay off the roofer for the new roof, and to pay taxes on the house, but legally the bf is required to keep the house up and pay all living-related bills.  Again, we don't know if he can afford to.  Our focus is to do what is right, and let him do as he will.

SO...

At any rate, this is what I've been up to while I've been away.