Legal documents. I have 4 of them to read the longest of which is 50 pages.
I don't have to ask questions about them (a step in the process) and sign them yet (they are drafts written by a FL firm) because the
FL firm and the NY firm had a meeting at the end of July the result of which was the NY firm has concerns about them, the result being these aren't the drafts I can sign anyway.
I'm glad for the delay because it gives me more time to read what I have, then more time to prepare for scheduling the meeting with the FL attorney, and so extending the date when I'll have to sign documents in front of notary and two witnesses.
I guess I am lucky because my brother's ex-wife has been like an angel. I met her when she and my brother came to HI on a cruise for their honeymoon. My sister was very close to her and their daughter. My mother was very close to her, as well of course her granddaughter.
As an aside, their daughter decided they were trans and also to change their name and use they/them pronouns. My brother refers to them as, "my child" so as not to have to confront the reality of it all. Lol!
So, when my father died, it was my brother's ex-wife who insisted that my brother and cousin find me.
She knew perfectly well (from my sister) that my father and I were very close. My brother and my cousin didn't know my father and I were in contact.
She knew all the details of my father's decision not to change his will and to refuse to finalize a new draft will for 2 years because my father told her these details himself.
To make a long story short, she and I have become friends.
I trust her with my life meaning she'll have the legal power to make end of life medical decisions. She'll also be my trustee, etc.
I live in a 55+ community. We have a monthly newsletter. I guess it's more like a bulletin. This month's issue has an article about what it called, "elderly orphans."
It defined this term as describing those members of our community who have nobody to designate as having various legal powers.
This reassured me a lot. These documents are arcane (to me) and more complex than I expected them to be. You are, I'd like to say kind of, but in fact giving other people legal power involving your life.
The consensus is that it's better to have people you trust as you become elderly than not to have anyone.
I'm pretty sure that I was at high risk of becoming an "elderly orphan."
I won't be living with the same person I have been living with for 30 years, this will be the first time in my life that I've lived by myself (I can't wait!), and narcissistic abuse is isolating by its nature (not complaining, just being realistic).
This is not as fun as reading a Critical Legal Studies text in college but it is real life, and I'm finding it to be deeply satisfying.
