08-19-2020, 08:04 AM
Okay, so I figured I'd reach out and see if anyone knew anything about this sort of stuff. Not expecting much, but I'm trying to cast a wide net.
Backstory: My father had two half-brothers. His father divorced my grandmother when my dad was real young. She remarried and had two more sons and my father considered that to be his father. Anyway, the youngest never had any kids, my father had two, and the middle child had one. The middle child's marriage dissolved shortly after his son was born because he was an alcoholic train wreck and they have been estranged from the family since the early nineties.
Fast forward to present day. The middle son passed away a couple of years ago and the youngest had to take care of everything because the estranged son wanted nothing to do with it. My father passed away on December 1. The youngest, already not in good mental or physical health, continued to decline and it culminates in me getting a call last night from a PA State Trooper to tell me they found him dead in his home, yesterday. He was also an alcoholic train wreck and it had only gotten worse in the past year or two. We had tried to get him to draw up a will, but it never happened. We were going to go, together, to get things done when I went up with my father's ashes to spread them, but then COVID-19 happened and we never made it up.
So now, I'm killing time while waiting for the coroner's office to open and trying to figure out how to handle the estate situation. I have looked at the intestate succession for PA and I see that it goes to the children of his siblings, meaning my sister and myself, but I don't know about Gilbert (my estranged cousin). I have zero idea where to go from here. I'm assuming nothing will really be able to be done until I have death certificates in hand, but I have no idea from there. I really have no problems if things are liquidated and split three ways, but there are some things that mean a lot to me that are in that house, things that have been in the family a long time and I am the only one that really cares about them. I just don't know how to ensure that those things are not sold off.
Anyway, just at a loss right now for things. 2020 sucks and I'm rambling a bit here. So anyone with any experience with this sort of thing?
Backstory: My father had two half-brothers. His father divorced my grandmother when my dad was real young. She remarried and had two more sons and my father considered that to be his father. Anyway, the youngest never had any kids, my father had two, and the middle child had one. The middle child's marriage dissolved shortly after his son was born because he was an alcoholic train wreck and they have been estranged from the family since the early nineties.
Fast forward to present day. The middle son passed away a couple of years ago and the youngest had to take care of everything because the estranged son wanted nothing to do with it. My father passed away on December 1. The youngest, already not in good mental or physical health, continued to decline and it culminates in me getting a call last night from a PA State Trooper to tell me they found him dead in his home, yesterday. He was also an alcoholic train wreck and it had only gotten worse in the past year or two. We had tried to get him to draw up a will, but it never happened. We were going to go, together, to get things done when I went up with my father's ashes to spread them, but then COVID-19 happened and we never made it up.
So now, I'm killing time while waiting for the coroner's office to open and trying to figure out how to handle the estate situation. I have looked at the intestate succession for PA and I see that it goes to the children of his siblings, meaning my sister and myself, but I don't know about Gilbert (my estranged cousin). I have zero idea where to go from here. I'm assuming nothing will really be able to be done until I have death certificates in hand, but I have no idea from there. I really have no problems if things are liquidated and split three ways, but there are some things that mean a lot to me that are in that house, things that have been in the family a long time and I am the only one that really cares about them. I just don't know how to ensure that those things are not sold off.
Anyway, just at a loss right now for things. 2020 sucks and I'm rambling a bit here. So anyone with any experience with this sort of thing?
"A great democracy has got to be progressive, or it will soon cease to be either great or a democracy..." - TR
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - FDR
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - FDR
