Dear Fellow Memoir Readers,
It has been more than a minute since my last book review. In October 2022 my mother and last living parent began having pain in her lower back, right side, and stomach. After a visit to the local hospital Emergency Room and a CT scan with contrast fluid, mom's primary care physician called to let us know that there was a massive tumor at the bottom of my mom's esophagus. The tumor was pushing on the organs surrounding it which in turn caused the pain my mom had been experiencing. After quite a wait for a biopsy, our family learned my mom had stage four Esophageal Cancer specifically Adenocarcinoma. The tumor was deemed inoperable. Interestingly, mom never once smoked, suffered from gastric reflux, or ever had a problem swallowing until this tumor was discovered.
Though believe it or not there was an actual treatment plan for this terminal cancer, it would cause some brutal side effects and only give mom an extra two years of life. Mom opted not to undergo any treatment as of November 28th, 2022. She wanted to remain in her home; however, she needed round the clock supervision and care so my sibling and I opted to bring her to our homes. We requested in home hospice care for mom. We witnessed mom slowly lose her ability to do all those humanly tasks most of us do each day and never think twice about it.
Mom died in the middle of January 2023 and life for me and my sibling has not quite been the same. Since my last review I have seen my mom diagnosed with inoperable cancer, opt for no treatment, be treated by Hospice in my home and my sibling's home, and tragically die. Since mom's death, I learned that when your last parent dies and they own property or have assets, you must administer their will. Administering a will is a whole lot easier if you have an estate attorney assisting you. (Heaven help those whose parents' or remaining parent never bothered to complete an official will because then the administering of the estate process gets exceedingly more difficult).
Upon hiring an estate attorney my sibling and I had to file for letters of testamentary as we are co-executors of our mom's estate. Letters of testamentary can take six to eight weeks to be approved and allow the deceased's executors to conduct estate business. Since receiving these valuable documents, we have had to sell mom's car and clean out her home. This is no easy task when the home is one in which your parents resided for over fifty years. Needless to say, cleaning out the house took several months. The home is now up for sale and currently under contract. To complete the estate administration process, we sign off on an inventory list of our mother's assets. Once the court approves the inventory list, the estate attorney can distribute final assets of the estate and we can officially close mom's estate.
All of the above has occurred in the last eight months. I hope to return to reviewing books soon and in time pick up my pen and continue writing my own manuscripts. I have always said who needs fiction when real life can be such a colossal story in itself.
Best,
Grace (Amy)
