Now It Gets Ugly!

As the days go by, Al gets in touch a few more times and shares a few other things that Diane had failed to disclose over the years. Primary among them was the fact, though she had always said she had nothing to do with her siblings, Al had, in fact, driven her to visit brother Michael in NE Oklahoma awhile back. This was notable since Al mentioned he had to call Michael to give his permission as next of kin to the hospital to place Diane on a ventilator.

Now we had two scenarios that were gonna play out. The first was someone was going to have to get into Diane's house before the eviction date. Scenario two was do nothing, let the eviction happen, and see all her stuff placed out on the curb or taken into storage limbo. Before Diane left for DC, I had contacted a local estate sale company, apprised them of the situation, and found that they could and would move everything out, store it (until Diane's death or return), then sell everything or whatever she didn't need. Al tells me he wasn't going to let me break into her house. As I explain to Al that, to keep it all above board, I'd have to go get legal guardianship to do it. Throughout all this, Al had said that he wasn't sure where Diane's keys were, alternately telling me, they might still be in Diane's purse in DC, at his niece's place in DC where he'd stayed, or maybe even still packed away in his bag which he hadn't bothered to unpack yet. I mention I'm planning to get legal guardianship (my fear here was that upon her death, one of the allegedly long lost brothers would show up wondering where all her stuff went and what did that fast talking nephew have to do with it). Only then does Al say, "You get legal guardianship, and I'll find the keys." Turns out he knew all along Diane had left her keys in his car.

When I speak to a couple of attorneys, I find the fee for such a service is gonna run $2000-$3000, Don't think I'm gonna go and get legal guardianship! Now I make a call to Legal Aid. Give them all my info and wait to hear back from them. However, the more I think about it, I'm still not next of kin and, technically, I'm not even a blood relative and even if I did go through all this hassle, her brother would still have legal claim to her estate and I'd be on the hook for even more of my time and money. Decided it was time to share the burden.