Welcome to Thursday Coffee Hour. This is an open topic thread. Help yourself to the goodies and sit a spell and let us know what is going on in your life and on your mind. Today I am thinking about inner strength and how friends help replenish it.
I lost my oldest brother on August 29th. We had the funeral yesterday. I am facing one heck of a mess in the house and finances. I found a bottle of medicine that he was taking with dangerous side effects including severe depression. Mike was prone to depression any ways and I think this set him over the edge. He screwed up the finances big time. I’ll have to deplete what little I have left from Mom to keep the house going until I can get access to his funds. When I got to the house I discovered he had been drinking heavily and the house was trashed. He had fallen and I had copious amounts of blood and feces to clean up. There were bloody handprints where he tried to pull himself up. He was on the floor for three days before he was found. I will never get those images out of my head.
I found a good, honest lawyer today and I can be the person in charge in 45 days from death since everyone in the will agrees that I should handle things. Current plans are to spend another week or two cleaning up the house, possibly selling as much stuff as I can, get the house clean and touched up, and get a realtor working. I’ll then go home for a few weeks and come back in late October to finish up the financial things.
It has been friends, many of whom I have never met, who have kept me going through these horrible times. It was Father Steve who got me through the funeral. I made it through the eulogy until the last sentence and then started crying. He held me up on the altar until I could get it back together all the time telling me what an amazing job I did. My friend Al over in Wales has been messaging me. He lost his Mom a few months ago and knows what I am going through. He refuses to let me feel guilty for not doing more pointing out there was nothing more I could have done. I have my own cheering squad on Facebook, Daily Kos, and Street Prophets. People let me know they care and it is this constant reassurance that makes me think that I can get through this.
This is the major difference between people like Romney and people like Obama. Romney wants the rich to succeed and doesn’t care if the poor have problems. Obama wants the poor to be able to have the same chance of things being better as those with money have. The difference is in caring. Thanks to all of you who have cared and let me know you care.