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GL Discussion Group
Well I can't believe two weeks have gone by sooo fast. It seemed like it was taking forever to get over.
So I got up there alright and 4 of my friends were soooo great with me and came to the house not once but multiple times to help weed through all my parents stuff. OMG my parents were pack rats. They didn't throw anything out, and I do mean ANYTHING!!! We found mortgage papers from a house they bought in 1958, all my teenager stuff, my diaries, utility bill statements, you name it they still had it!!! We found my mothers wedding dress that she made herself, course it wasn't well preserved and it seemed rather stiff and kinda smelled. Oh well.
I made funeral arrangements two days after getting there and held it on Apr 12th. Both my cousins were able to attend and to see them after almost 20 years was soo great!! The service for Dad was wonderful, it was really great to see some of his long time friends and to hear some stories about Dad. I had a few calls over the next few days from his friends about how wonderful the service was and how great the chaplin was who talked about my Dads life.
I had 4 people staying with me over the funeral weekend and we got through the last of the drawers, boxes and photos. There were several surprises and one mystery still to be solved.
Surprise #1 was finding my adoption papers. I knew I was adopted but had never seen the papers to read them. They are in german but with translations. I discovered that I had a different name at birth. I was named Tracey-Leigh Bantin. I've never asked my parents how or why they chose my names but Leigh is my middle name now!
Surprise #2 which is my mystery still unsolved. We found documents and newpaper clippings of an uncle that I didn't know I had, he was in the WW2 and was MIA and presumed dead according to the article. Moms never talked about him so now I will have to contact cousins to find out more about him.
Surprise #3 was the killer of them all. We had been finding items with the initials EOJ on them. My Moms name is Eunice Olive and last name Whyte but we couldn't understand what J was for. Some items had the last name of Johnson but still who was this. Finally the wedding licence for my parents was found, on it Moms maiden name was listed as Johnson. Huh?!?!? WTF, so a few days later Dads trustee show up at the house all excited. I had been giving her boxes of papers to shred cuz I didn't want to deal with it. In one box she found divorse papers of my Moms. Seems Mom was married before she met my dad which was shock number one for me but then the divorce papers further go on to say that shes changing her name to Johnson for all legal matters so that her ex hubby cannot locate her!! Wow That was back in the 40's early 50's so something like that I could see being a scandle for my grandma if she ever found out. What a shock.
Course other thiings I found in the house was money. This is common I'm told by the trustee as most elderly squirrel the money away and then forget they've done this. I was finding $1200 here and $600 there and $1000 there.
Anyways the house is going on the market after the end of next week which gives the trustee a week to get things shipped to me and out of the house for showing. Hopefully it sells fast and I can be over it all. My Moms still aliove but in a care fasc. for dementia so the money will go towards the continued care. Dad was cremated and I brought him home with me as his will didn't state where he wanted to be laid to rest. Mom wants to be spread out in the pacific ocean so when that time comes I'll travel back there with Dad and spread them together.
Anyways I missed my family very much, got to talk with Alexis a bit on the phone one night which was wonderful but sad too as I missed her that much more. Heather looks like shes grown some since I left. I'm still jet-lagged so I'll sign off for now, talk with you all soon.
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