pyewacketsworld

Part 14:

In my previous entry I related how my mother had died on Sunday, August 27, 2006, while we had been involved with a eviction court case battle. I had actually been present when my mother died, and when I came home I was tired and weary, but my next emotion was anger. Like how dare my mother die while in the middle of all this mess, a mess she had created and the reason why we had been threatened with eviction in the first place.

The whole following week was an event in itself. Since my mother didn’t have a savings or checking account and no life insurance, now came the question of how to get some kind of decent funeral arrangement for her without any money involved since there was none. Prior to my mother dying, I had asked, out of curiosity, if the hospital had any procedure about funeral arrangements if there weren’t any funds available, as my mother certainly didn’t have an “estate”. It just so happened that the hospital provided free funeral services, that is, at least a burial and via the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. The next day after she died, I went back to the hospital to talk with the social worker on the floor my mother had been on. It took quite awhile to get all the necessary paperwork, plus me having to go to the first floor to the place to find the head priest who had to sign the forms, then back up again to the fourth floor of the hospital. The social worker then faxed all the info over to the head office of the Society.

It was rather amusing, or at least I thought so, since when I came back home, a message was on my answering machine. It was from the Society. I thought, gee, they sure do work fast. So, I called back and talked for a long time about the procedures of how things were done. Everything was going rather smoothly until the woman asked me, how much monthly income was coming in from my mother. I told her the amount of my mother’s Social Security retirement benefits and her pension. The woman said, “Oh, that’s too much, we only provide free burials for monthly incomes of less than $938.00.” My mother’s monthly income combined was $1,340.00. Now I know it wasn’t the woman’s fault and she was just going by the book of rules, but here I was literally screaming into the phone, “What am I supposed to do with my mother?” The phone conversation ended…she didn’t even give me any suggestions of just what I could do. I also, had to find something and quick as the rule was that the hospital only keep the bodies of the deceased for three days, after that they automatically went to some city owned cemetery, similar to a Potter’s Field.

Then I began making phone calls to the different places my mother had worked for. She had worked at a bank for nearly twenty years, and then much later at a major department store. The idea was to ask them, if there had been any funds available. I didn’t have much success finding anything out that day, as all I succeeded in doing was leaving messages and crossed my fingers that they would call me back with some kind of good news.

I started calling up my friends to tell them of this “wonderful” new development. Then, one of my friends, Barbara, who had very close ties with the local funeral home told me she would call them up in my behalf and tell them the situation that maybe somehow special arrangements could be made in my behalf. Much later, I actually got a call from one of the directors of the funeral home, and I too, explained the situation, especially the fact of no “estate” being available to handle any funeral costs, and of my being a recipient of SSI benefits. He told me to stop by the funeral home the next day and some kind of arrangements could be made.

Early the next day, Tuesday, August 29th, just a little before I was to go to the funeral home, I got a call from the main benefits office from the place of employment when my mother worked for the bank. There indeed were funds and I was the beneficiary and they would be sending me forms to fill out. I wasn’t told how much the funds were, but at least when I went to the funeral home I would be able to tell them that there was going to be some kind of money available to hopefully pay for the funeral costs.

I remember it being a bleak, overcast and rainy day, the day I went to the funeral home…somehow fitting I thought. The funeral home had been in business since God knows when, a family run business going way back and now two brothers ran it. I didn’t get to meet with the brother I had talked to the night before but the other brother. It took quite awhile to do all the paperwork, filling this form and that form and what was to be arranged was a direct cremation, no wake, no real burial, but a cremation as let’s face it, it was the less expensive way to go. Even a one-day wake would have cost something like $6,000 as opposed to the direct cremation which would only cost $2,000.00. And oh, how embarrassing it was though as the only “extra” money I had to leave as a down payment was a mere $25.00, but at least the funeral director didn’t laugh in my face with my meager payment.

The next day was to be a busy one for me as well, in fact, that whole week was a whirlwind of busyness. On Wednesday, August 30th I was to go with my Adult Protective Service person to the closet Social Security office to see about arranging a raise in my SSI benefits. Also, other arrangements had to be made in my behalf, for you see, with my mother’s death, technically speaking I was no longer legally represented for my court case. The lawyer we had, had was via JASA-Legal Services for the Elderly and one could only benefit by it if one was at least 60 years old. So…wonderful! I had THIS on my mind too, but as you’ll see, things worked out.

©2009~Melanie Neer aka pyewacket

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