More Things You Have To Do

Thank you to everyone for supportive comments on recent posts. It is really wonderful that so many people are thinking about me and the family

 I still seem to be OK most of the time, managing to do all the legal and paperwork stuff and lots of  gardening. I guess because of spending so many weeks on my own at various times while Colin was in hospital it still seems a bit like that, so it will be later that I really feel things.

The next thing to sort out was financial stuff and the will.
So appointment made to go to solicitors with a list of what papers to take.

There are so many people to notify.

The registrar gave me a code number to use for the Tell-Us-Once service which deals with lots of things like passport and DVLA...... But when I went on line to do it I couldn't get into it - just an error message. So I phoned up and was told that the registrar had entered the wrong month online. The Death Certificates were OK, which was the most important thing.........so many bits of paper are needed for everything....it's all very confusing. Try to get Registrar to tell them about the error and that's a busy number for all of Suffolk's Registry Offices. Leave message. Get new code number. Try again. All seems OK. Get right through until the end of the process, press submit and ERROR message Again! Try and find out why......not sure. Give up. Resolve to do everything individually and direct, which turned out to be almost as simple!

Except of course every phone number that you call  is a press button 1, 2, 3 etc and loud music while you wait......"we value your call".....?

Phone calls made, forms printed off, forms filled in, forms posted.

Council Tax notified....  there's a 25% discount for single occupancy -  every little helps - but it sounds so final and sad.

After all that I was glad that no one works  weekends so I could have a break from the phone.

Back to the phoning after the weekend.
My car needs it's MOT test done so phoning for that and appointments made all over the place.

Phew

Then off to sort the funeral - Col's sister came too to keep me company. It's only 10 months since she was there with Colin planning their Dad's funeral. Colin had decided the who, where and what he wanted for the funeral and we have ample time to sort things out. I certainly wouldn't want to do everything in just a few days. When I said the funeral wouldn't be for a while it is because of various commitments already made by people that can't be changed - it's not a problem.

Lots of people to notify now and more appointments to make then I had a  dentist appointment for a big filling, which if it doesn't work will mean root canal stuff - not fun. Worst of it is I still have to go back again for another filling or rather having a tooth rebuilt..... it broke a month ago when I bit a Toblerone(won in a raffle) that had been put in the fridge.....annoying! If that treatment doesn't work it will mean having the tooth  capped - all sounds horrible.

Thank you to everyone who thought of making a donation in Colin's name, that's a lovely thought. We are having donations to two things. One is Lymphoma Action and the other is the cancer ward support group at Ipswich hospital. But any Cancer research charity would be grateful for all the help they can get. It's amazing how many cancers are beatable now thanks to research but there is still more research needed for Non Hodgkin Lyphoma, as someone said in comments the other day, nothing much was known about it at all just 40 years ago but things are getting better especially for some of the more common types. The Mantle Cell type that Col had is one of the rarer ones.

Thought it was time for a new header photo as we head into June. Taken on Tuesday when the sun was making dappled shade through the big trees at the end of the meadow.

I have so many posts in drafts that were written weeks ago and if I leave them much longer some will be nonsensical so I'll start posting again more regularly for a while.

Back tomorrow
Sue