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I'm so sorry, languagehat. My sympathies and prayers are with you and your family.
Growabrain is a realtor in CA but I can't remember which part. Hopefully he'll see the AskMe and know someone that lh can contact about the house and the rest.
Warm thoughts to both 'hat and jonmc. I hope happy memories push out the pain as quickly as possible.
A coworker of Mrs Chewy lost his Dad last week and was tasked with disposing of his home and everything in it. Which included accumulated mail that was many years old, newspapers, furniture, clothes, and so on. So far they have found over $50k in cash in small envelopes distributed throughout the house.
Languagehat, my husband went through the same thing as you earlier this year, including the long distance thing. He got a lawyer to help him through the legal stuff, but had to go through the apartment himself with (not much) help from his sister.
For him it was a chance to really come to terms with the totallity of his relationship with his dad, and to process the death. It was hard and healing at the same time.
I wish you peace through this. It isn't easy. My condolences.
(Amberglow's answer in the askme thread is right on. When my grandmother died, we went through and took the stuff we wanted to keep, then we had an estate company take care of the rest. Made it much easier.)
Many thanks, everyone, and condolences to my man jonmc.
I hope that there was sufficient warning for your dad to take care of any loose ends.
Oh, Dad had taken care of business years ago: living trust, prearranged cremation and burial, the whole bit. This is a guy who, whenever we'd stop at a motel on those long car trips across the country when we were kids, would right off the bat make sure we knew where the fire exits were (he had a thing about fire, and oddly enough got third-degree burns over most of his body in a kitchen accident years later -- strange how our fears can come true -- one reason I try not to be afraid of things). He was always trying not to be a burden on anyone.
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