Chapter 5
816 Words
Chapter 5
Saturday afternoon, April 13th
Steamboat Willie’s
“It was a nice service,” Kane’s Uncle Roger said from his perch on the bar stool next to mine.
“Thank you for coming. I appreciate you being there.” I meant the words but I felt like I was speaking from outside my own body. It had been a rough week all around and a very emotional morning.
Kane himself moved toward us. “And you as well, thank you too,” I told him.
He gave me a tight-lipped grin and a nod in response. He pointed to my coffee cup and I nodded back at him to go ahead and refill it. The bar was closed for the day but several of us had naturally seemed to drift that way after the funeral.
“If you don’t mind me asking,” Roger began hesitatingly, “what will you do now? Will you stay on here or will you keep on moving about and doing rehabs?”
“That, I can’t answer for sure. The rehabs are in my blood but it’s all up to the courts and how big of a cut out of Lisa’s estate they take.”
He quirked an eyebrow in my direction, his question obvious on his face.
“Lisa and I were legally married in the eyes of the federal government but we weren’t in the eyes of the State of Colorado. We have a registered Civil Union here which doesn’t seem to mean much when it comes to probate. There are three bars that we kept in her name for tax purposes that are now going to be all caught up. We would use the income from those and the sale of more recent properties to buy the next place.”
“Such a shame, that. So, no will leaving those to you?”
“There’s a will.”
“I don’t understand then,” he said, shaking his head. “Probate isn’t required for wills, only for the lack of one. You can leave your assets to anyone you want if you have a will. Do you have a lawyer?”
“Yes.” It was my turn to appear puzzled. “We actually use a firm that’s got offices around the country since we move around so much.”
“I’d be talking to them soon, if I was you. Get that will looked at and those assets transferred to you.”
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Wednesday, April 17th
Meecham and Seer Law offices
Denver, Colorado
“It’s not quite so simple Ms. Wysocki,” the junior lawyer was telling me, his tone borderline exasperated.
“What’s so hard about it? I guess I’m just not understanding. It’s a valid will. Lisa’s estate shouldn’t even be in probate.”
“It may very well be but it’s being contested as invalid.”
“By whom? The state?”
He shook his head. “By a group claiming to be Lisa’s rightful heirs; a Hake Swogger, a Heath Swogger and a Heidi Lykins. Are you familiar with them?”
“Well isn’t that fast?” I was livid.
“How so?”
“I’m vaguely familiar with them. They’re Lisa’s cousins by marriage and her only living relatives. I took the time to bother to notify the two I could track down, Hake and Heidi who still live in Iowa where Lisa was from, about her death and the funeral but they couldn’t even be bothered to send so much as a card let alone show up.”
“So they’re first cousins, then?”
I nodded. “Is that important?”
“You said they were her only living relatives so, in the event there was no will, they would be her legal heirs in the eyes of the state.”
“And again, there is a will. How can they contest it?”
“They can contest anything they want to. It will be up to the court to determine if their claim is valid.”
“Even if they don’t live in Colorado?”
“Their relative location has no bearing on their claim.”
“What are my chances here?”
“We’re not in the business of laying odds Ms. Wysocki. If you wish to retain us to represent you in this matter, we’ll work to serve your best interests.”
###
May 2nd, 2013
“I don’t know what to do mom; I feel like I’m drowning.”
“Is there anything we can do to help?” her voice came back across the line.
“I appreciate that, but no. Just listening is enough.”
“Fill me in, baby. What’s going on?”
“The probate court out here froze all of the assets of Lisa’s estate pending their final decision. That could take months. Meanwhile, her medical bills are still piling up.”
“But, she had health insurance...”
I cleared my throat to keep from swearing into the phone with my disgust over our insurers. Instead I told her, “She did, yes, but she had a high deductible and it was a cost shared plan too; in other words, worthless. Since the funeral, I’ve run though what was left of the life insurance proceeds trying to pay off the medical bills but there’s just no end.”
“You would think when someone passes during a procedure that they would just...I don’t know...but not bill you, that’s for sure!”
There really wasn’t a response for that and mom was on a roll anyway.
“You could just do what I do with your father’s stuff; send them twenty dollars every time they send you a bill. They’ll see you’re making an attempt to pay and...”
“That isn’t going to work. Some of these bills are for thousands of dollars.”
“Oh.”
“Once this case is decided, hopefully, I’ll be able to tap the cash flow that’s in holding right now, pay off the bills, pay off my lawyers and try to put my life back together...somehow, maybe...I don’t know. Right now, I feel like I’m circling the drain.”
- Writer
