What Was Saved? Anything?

OMG, I am just in AWE! Virtually no medical paperwork was saved. Nothing! There are plenty of statements from Social Security and the bank. Those are helpful, but what doctors has Sharon seen and when? No bills, no phone numbers. Ahhhh!

As I mentioned before, my husband was able to get to at least one doctor before they left California. One doctor. We have no record of any of the other doctors. We had asked for this information for 3 YEARS. I know, it was one way my mother-in-law could maintain control of the situation. I get that, but since she asked us to take this on post mortem, why wouldn't it be okay if we have the information ahead of time so that we don't have to scramble. I DIDN'T WANT TO BE SCRAMBLING!

Yes, we were ticked. I was more than ticked. Now I was mad at someone I couldn't even be mad at in person. I don't like being mad at someone who has passed. I want to have happy thought, not thoughts of anger toward my mother-in-law. Can you hear that? That is me growling. I have been trying to stop the guttural growl, but it hasn't ceased just yet. Still too many holes and too much running around.

Talking to Sharon only goes so far. She has a pretty good memory for certain things. She can sort of remember her doctors, but then she gets the stories confused. She is also an embellisher so we don't know for sure what we really should be believing. And then, we even find out that important appointments, like female appointments, have been skipped because she "wasn't having a problem" or "she didn't like it." Come on...who does?!

We began putting the stories together, making phone calls, searching the internet for California contacts (even images of buildings that she might remember - thank God for Google in many forms!). Some doctors won't give us anything without guardianship papers, some want to see the copy of the will...some say the will is crap (it's a whole 'nother blog post).

What have we learned from this? Document, document, document. I started a spiral notebook. One page for each phone call, doctor, etc. Sharon has her own file box - well, I have a file box dedicated to her - and accordion file that went with me for the first two months wherever I went. Literally.

I don't like talking on the phone. This new responsibility has made that feeling a bit deeper...I really don't like to talk on the phone now...it borders hatred. But we plug on, plunge forward and see where this all takes us. The answers will come, just when (and will we be able to pay our bills while we wait for some of our answers)?