Preparedness

We finally settled with a lawyer to handle Papa's estate. Papa passed without leaving a will. He had assumed that whatever assets he had will be automatically transferred to the next of kin, namely my mum and myself. He refused to talk about stuff like these, as he felt that its taboo to talk about death when "all is well". We left it as that, as we didn't want to prode further about such matters.

On hindsight, if he had prepared a will, which would cost $150 - $400, we probably may not need to spend $2500 in legal fees to settle the matter. The lawyer has advised us that with disbursements, and other miscellaneous charges, the final bill will be in the range of around $3500. Not to mention that the entire process will take 6-8 months.

Having to go through this, I saw the importance of getting the will done. In fact, i have been "thinking" of getting it done for the longest time, but the procrasinator in me got the better of me. Mike and myself have given it some thought, and we will be getting it done soon. We are definitely concern about who gets our money, assets, hamsters, etc when we are gone, but what we are concerned with is who is going to care for Nic in the event of our untimely exit. Lots of thoughts went into this decision, but we are pretty sure THEY will make great subsitute parents.

On the note of preparedness, Nic will be sitting for her first exams in the second week of May. I am beginning to realise that i am nagging a lot these days, especially as the exam week grew closer. I am not expecting her to be topping the class...mediocre is ok with me...but please don't sink to the bottom of the lot....sigh...