There are those that I have conversations with outside of the pages of ActiveRain who may already know, but I am sure many of you have no idea of the thoughts I am about to share or the back story.
In 1997 I had a call from a client who was searching for a home on Lake Sinclair with an Atlanta agent who had finally said.... "those people in that MLS are crazy, but call one of them, I'm tired of dealing with them" She picked me to call. (Lucky me) Buyer agency was new and many "old school" brokers in my market at the time wanted no part of someone working for the buyer to swoop in from Atlanta and walk away with half the seller's money paid in commission when we had a hot seller's market and no trouble finding buyers at the time.
That client grew into one of the best friends and resources I've ever known. She was an attorney. She retired to move to the lake, but she kept her bar membership and stayed current and helped me more times than I could possibly tell you about.
One morning last last October I got a phone call and well... my friend had passed away. She was 71. Her husband was 86. For the 8 years since she had updated their wills she had said "I'm going to die, and you are going to have to take care of Bob (not his real name) because he's going to live to be 100". I did know his parents both lived 100+ years, but I really never had believed her. She was right, I was wrong.
Fast forward 10 months and I have cleaned out her house, donated many things, had an estate auction held for other things, listed and sold the house, got Bob settled in an assisted living situation, dealt with his kids.... one is nice, one... lies and the other is an outright asshole. The asshole has been demanding financial documents. He's not entitled to them.
The bulk of the assets were in her name alone and the estate is hers. Her will specifies the money take care of Bob (who has several health issues including but not limited to dementia. A decade ago they discussed with me when he was first diagnosed that they both wanted me named as POA over finances, health care directives and executor over her will and his should she die first.
It has been emotional, exhausting and that one kid (who is older than me) got on my last nerve and stomped for a while. For a lot of years I sometimes would wonder if my friend's step children were as bad as she made them out to be. I no longer wonder. They are worse. You text someone to tell them their father in the ER and get no questions, no response and email asking for financial statements and threatening to seek out an attorney if I don't send them. Yeah, so much worse.
My calming counter balance has been my family. Family is most important to me. Weekly I have lunch with my parents, and I see them generally another one to two times during the week. I see my grandsons 3 to 5 times a week. My Donald is the best helper ever. On times when I can't run and check on Bob, he does it for me. Recently the facility called and said "he needs batteries for his glucose meter", that very day my Donald drove them there. It's been a tough year. I am hoping for better and not more of the same. I've lost a lot of people close to me in the past few years, but I guess that comes with age.
But the thought I want to share with you this afternoon....
Whatever in life has happened in the past, don't let it stop you from loving your family. Make time for family and make time for yourself. If you don't take care of you, you don't have what it takes to take care of others.
Now I'm going to get back to real estate. Have a house to work up a price on for a 2 pm appointment tomorrow. Hope to have a new listing on line on Monday. It's a fantastic view and a wonderful location.
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