Years ago Bill bought and paid for his burial spot and a vault which is required here in PA. We were contacted to come in for a review which we did. Of course this was not one of our favorite things to do, but it was necessary. Bill was under the impression that everything was all set until she started going over everything and we realized that it was far from being a done deal.
Until she was done adding in all the opening and closing costs, casket, memorial and service costs it was close to 10,000 extra dollars, we were flabbergasted. She was suppose to send us all the paper work so we could review it and decide what we were going to do. So far we haven’t received anything to review and that’s been a few months ago. We were told we could make payments so everything would be in order.
No one really wants to think about the details of their death we just assume it will be taken care of. Losing a loved one is hard and the grief that ensues from family members is bad enough, but to add a financial burden to our loved ones left behind and making arrangements that we should have made is cruel. Of course most people have life or burial insurance that will cover some if not all the expenses, but many don’t.
I am going to be cremated myself because I do not want to be planted in the ground regardless of how pretty the spot may be. I do not want a service before I’m cremated or any type of memorial afterwards. I have always cringed just thinking about someone gawking at me and saying stupid stuff like,” Look how happy and peaceful she looks now” or ” She looks really bad, poor thing.”
If they want to do anything I would prefer they all just go have a party and celebrate my life, not cry because I’m gone. Bill knows what to do with my ashes, but I’m not sure what he is going to decide now for himself. At any rate the whole point I was trying to make is maybe you should check into the arrangements you may have made and find out if everything is actually paid for in full so it wont be a financial burden on those left behind, most of us tend to put these things off.
Ethan Christmas In January
Ethan and Chris shared January 2nd with us and opened presents and Pappy heated up New Years day left overs the traditional pork and sauerkraut because Chris hadn’t had any the day before. We enjoyed the visit even though it was a sad time for all of us. The little boy got to share only one Christmas with his daddy and he was just a baby so he wont even remember it.
I honestly feel like Grandma Andrews, the old lady you go see as a duty call instead of the smoochy Nana I would love to be. The little boy hardly knows me which makes me very sad. So when Bill or maybe it was Chris saying about Santa Clause leaving presents at our house for Ethan I corrected that very quickly so he would know those presents had been bought with love from his Nana and Pappy.
Santa is in no way getting credit for anything I do, screw Santa!
Chris did tell us that they may stay up here instead of going back to Kentucky. She wants to try and keep the property down there for Ethan though because his daddy worked so hard to get something for them to hold on to. Ethan is so much like his Father and I can see a lot of his traits, honestly I hope he calms down and didn’t inherit the bi-polar his dad suffered from.
Jude/Blowout/1974
I was looking through some old photos and ran across this old Polaroid of me with a blowout or Afro or whatever you want to call it from 1974 and it made me laugh so hard that I thought I’d share it and give you a chuckle too.
Toys R Us Deluxe Easel
We bought this deluxe easel from Toys R Us because Jodi picked it out for Nate for Christmas. It’s really nice and made from birch wood, but when we put it together I noticed the holes for the paint are on the whiteboard side and the slit for the paper is on the chalkboard side shown below.
I’m sure the design makes perfect sense to the creator, but it doesn’t to me. However the little boy in the photo above has it pulled down on the whiteboard side so I guess it will work either way. I have no clue why they didn’t just put the slit and the holes in the same side so there is no confusion.
I really don’t want them thinking we put it together wrong so they get the instructions and the picture that was on the box which Bill cut off for me. I am so mean because I’m going to wrap the cardboard photo for Nate to open.
We’ll all meet at Jodi’s house Christmas Eve for dinner and to open presents. I can’t wrap the easel so we’ll leave that and the Cracker Barrel rocker in the jeep because I couldn’t wrap that either, which is for the other granddaughter. Cracker Barrel makes some really nice heavy rockers.
I can’t wait to see the expression on Nate’s face when he opens all of his paints and art supplies and then his cardboard easel. I need to make sure my batteries are charged so I can capture the expression. Yes, I know I’m mean, but he’ll forgive me.
