A long road

My father passed away last March.

I didn't really know him; he and my mother divorced when I was in high school, and afterwards, I didn't hang out with him much. He remarried a few years later, and moved to Nova Scotia to spend his retirement. I never visited him there, and he only visited me once, before moving east.

I saw my father once, before he passed away. A couple of years ago, he had a "close call", and landed in the hospital with hypoxia. It took him time to recover, and I spent a week visiting him at the hospital in Dartmouth. We parted without animosity, but we were never close.

Well, he passed away. He made me executor of his will (along with a woman who was his late 2nd wife's niece), and left his estate to my brother, his two nieces-by-marriage, and me. I took care of the funeral arrangements, contracted a company to take care of the day-to-day management of the estate, and went home after the funeral.

Almost seven months later, my father's estate is now (mostly) settled, and the inheritances have been distributed. For what he neglected to do during his lifetime, he had tried to make up for in his passing. Frankly, I'd give up all the inheritance to have him back.

Thank you, Dad.