pyewacketsworld

Part 16:

As I mentioned in Part 15 of this series, I kind of had “fun” writing out cover letters, and including a copy of my mother’s death certificate to all the places my mother owed money to. At the time of her death, she was in debt for something like over $25,000.00. As I also explained, that unless the recently deceased had a joint account with another family member (in this case would have been me if there was a joint account) one doesn’t owe a penny to any company, not even credit cards. If a company harasses someone for payment it’s actually against the law and is clearly stated so in the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act, but of course, some places, fed on people’s fears that they do owe debts of a deceased member, and also, many of these debt collector’s are under the impression that the deceased person left an enormous “estate”. Right, sure. My mother had no savings or checking accounts and she certainly didn’t have any life insurance.

Thankfully my cover letter and copy of my mother’s death certificate seemed to satisfy most people, but then I had one nuisance company harass me over and over again…and believe it or not, it was of all things the billing office of the hospital my mother died in. Like, duh? How stupid. Didn’t the people look up my mother’s name on the computer and see that “Oh, she’s deceased.” Apparently not. Even though it was frustrating it was also actually funny, for you see, when I’d got letters from the billing office it was always in my mother’s name…or I’d get phone calls, and asking for my mother. Like duh again? I would talk to the person on the phone, explaining my mother was deceased, and I had sent a copy of my mother’s death certificate. Seemed they never got it. So sent another one to them, and why I had to do this in the first place is beyond me, when all they had to do was look up my mother’s name on their computers to verify she was dead.

About a month passes. I get another phone call from the billing office, and I recognized the voice and she asked for my mother…again. It was the very same woman I had talked to previously. I explained the whole thing all over again, that I had already sent now two copies of my mother’s death certificate…are these people dense or something? So, yes, believe it or not, sent yet another copy of my mother’s death certificate. More time passes, that is a few months and it’s now around February of 2007, and I get another call, but instead of the billing office, it was now a lawyer representing them and yes, the lawyer asked for my mother. Honestly, I should have tape recorded a message so I wouldn’t have to explain the whole thing over again. Yup, you got it…I sent yet another copy of my mother’s death certificate. Well, luckily that seemed to end that episode and haven’t been bothered by these jerks.

Now, back to the court case. I didn’t go to the August 31st court date, heck I had a good excuse as my mother had just died on August 27th, but now I was up a creek without paddle. Why? The law firm that had been helping my mother and myself was JASA-Legal Services for the Elderly…so technically speaking I was no longer legally represented, thankfully though, they were able to arrange a variety of services for me. I still had my Adult Protective Service person representing me, and I was given a “Guardian Ad Litem”, so not an actual lawyer but still could represent my interests in the court case. There were no court appearance dates for the month of September, yet I was to have two final ones, one on October 5th and the other October 19th and I didn’t have to appear at either of them, instead my Adult Protective Service person and Guardian Ad Litem represented me.

Well, for all those reading this blog so far, and wondering what the court case outcome was…I won! The final decision was made on that last court date of October 16, 2006. I wasn’t evicted and could stay in my apartment…yahooooooo! Ironically, never once did I believe that the case would go against me. Maybe the cock-eyed optimist in me, but also, technically speaking the landlord no longer had an issue to persue. The cat population problem had been resolved, and I was down to only two cats, so the landlord had nothing against me now. And yes, it really was great how things fell in place for me.

I’ll be on and off continuing how things fell in place for me even beyond this “epic” saga in my life.

©Melanie Neer aka pyewacket