Three Beautiful Things 04/02/18: Engagement!, Estate Business, Remembering 2017

1. Today my pocket computer chimed with a notification. When I checked my messages, I saw a picture of Adrienne and Josh, a lovely picture, and Adrienne was wearing a ring I hadn't seen before. It's an engagement ring! Today, Josh proposed marriage to Adrienne and she accepted. I am very happy for Josh and Adrienne -- and, for Jack -- and it makes me very happy that they announced their engagement while the Deke was visiting and that they could toast their engagement  together.

2. This morning I picked up papers at the attorney's office that will bring the settlement of Mom's estate to a close. Christy, Carol, and I all signed statements saying we were satisfied with how we divided the estate among ourselves. We will have these papers dated and notarized once Mom's tax refunds arrive and I have deposited the checks in the estate account and made one last division of funds. Then I can officially retire my responsibilities as executor.

3. The Deke and I paid more money out of pocket than usual in 2017 for medical expenses. I scoured our bank statements and totaled up how much we spent, just in case it makes a difference when I file our tax returns.  It might not, but the fun part of going line by line through those statements is having many memories of fun times in 2017 return: touring Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York City with Ed and Mike; the little trip the Deke and I took down to Williamsburg, Yorktown, and Jamestown; the drive the Deke and I made across the country in order to move back to Kellogg; those Sunday visits the Deke and I often made to DC Brau; the Deke and I seeing Sunday in the Park with George and The Glass Menagerie in New York City and going to hear Chanticleer at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D. C. 

This scouring of our bank records also brought back thoughts, feelings, and memories of my trip in April to see Mom, the last time I saw her in her own house, and my return to Kellogg in June to be with Mom and Christy and Carol until Mom died in August. So, I got the tax business I wanted to finish taken care of and I also relived one of the most eventful years of my life, a year of joy, excitement, and profound loss.