Chapter 7

Yesterday morning was spent with an attorney discussing my financial situation. The answer was as I expected: File for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

The most interesting thing I learned was that even though you may have durable power of attorney for an individual that authority ends on the death of the individual. At which point, the conditions of the last will and testament become active.

Of course, there are all kinds of documents that have to be produced, many of which I had. Before moving here, I forced myself to shift through as many of the documents related to my parents as I could. It was an awful task, that constantly left me depressed and confused.

And once I moved in, I scoured the house for papers and tried to incorporate them in where needed. The need for these papers was the fact that mother and I were listed as joint tenants for the property, house, car, checking account, CDs, and all other assets.

Then I went through the process again with all documents related to myself.

In retrospect, I'm very glad I did all this. It made this initial part of the process much easier.

Last night I spent another couple of hours trying to put everything back in order. In the process, I discovered I'd walked off with the attorney's folder. Yikes!

There are still some unanswered questions in my mind. What did I sign or not sign for mother's visit to the hospital in late November, her stay at the nursing home and her trip to the hospital last week. Which and what will I be responsible for. And will that become part of the items included in the bankruptcy proceedings. I know that for the nursing homes, I've always signed as the financially responsible party.

The bankruptcy process allows you maintain your possessions as long at the total value does not exceed $10,000. One car is ten years old; the other, nine. So that's not too much of a problem. I need to do some research on how one calculates the value of books: Is it purchase price, replacement price or sellable price? Even there though, I doubt if there's a problem. I suppose that worse that could happen is that I'd have to hand over some items to the creditors. In reality, there's little here that has traditional market value: no guns, no antiques, no coin collections, no gold or silver, a little costume jewelry, no boats, no airplanes, no elaborate electronic systems, no major works of art, no Heisman Trophy. (By the way, OJ got $230,000 at the auction of his trophy.)

Questions like this were part of a very long process that quizes you about the possibility of anything of value that could be forfeited. The most curious question was if you had any prize-winning animals. I guess this in case someone has a prize-winning pet that brings in lots of money from exhibitions and contests. I guess it could also apply to a race horse.

PAX