This day has been full of unexpected blessings. Kathy and I have both felt Max’s presence and guidance throughout this day.
We got to the apartment by 8:30 this morning. Kathy went over to the community room to bring back the things that the other residents didn’t take from what we have tried to give away. She came back and said the man that asked about the pickup was there and he was interested in buying it.
I got the pickup title and went over to the community room with her. We had received an offer from Kelly Blue Book dealer for $5,500 for the pickup although they reserved the right to lower or raise it once they saw the pickup. This guy offered $5,000 and Kathy accepted the offer. It would save us having to deal with the paper work and a possible delay.
I got on the computer in the community room and found a MA bill of sale for a vehicle. I typed it out and printed it. The guy drove the pickup to his house and picked up the cash for it. He came back and a deal was done. He has purchased lots of vehicles and knew how to work the system.
I am going to wait to cancel the insurance on the pickup for a couple of days so the guy can get it registered before I cancel the insurance. Trusting there will be less questions that way. I gave the guy the file Max had on the pickup with all service records, etc.
Wow! What a relief to have the pickup gone that easy. I think we could have gotten more for it but this way we had no hassle or headache. That was worth a lot!
The make it go away guy showed up as promised a little after 9:00. While he was clearing out the apartment I went back to our hotel and checked us out. We thought selling the truck would take most of the day and that we would have to spend one more night here. We decided to head out after we got the apartment empty and cleaned.
The guy finished clearing everything out by 11:00, he even broom swept the floors for us. He told us that is all we needed to do. We started cleaning and Kathy said let’s go ask the manager how clean it needed to be before we spent hours cleaning.
The manager came over and she only needed us to wipe out the refrigerator. They are going to repaint the walls and wax the floors so she didn’t need us to detail clean much. What a relief that was.
We got the keys turned in and the checkout list signed off and we loaded up and took out. Max’s friend still didn’t have the cremains and didn’t know if the death certificate was ready or not. We decided to have the funeral home mail them to us and not hang around and wait for them.
We drove over 350 miles this afternoon. We stopped in Batavia, NY for the night. I was getting tired and traffic was getting heavy as we are getting close to Buffalo. We still have over 1,150 miles to go so won’t make it home tomorrow night but we should roll in Wednesday afternoon.
Traffic was mainly good this afternoon. Hit a few slow down spots but we kept moving. We stopped for lunch somewhere along the road and made a couple potty stops.
I still need to close out his bank account and forward his mail but I can do both of those things electronically from home. The apartment manager is going to watch his mail and open and scan and send me anything important. I will cancel his pickup insurance after we get home. There is also a small death benefit from Social Security. I’ll see if I have the patience to attempt to claim that. As far as I know now, those are the only things remaining to take care of.
What a relief it was to sale the pickup so easily today. I had thought it would take all day and that we would have to drive miles. I was worried we wouldn’t be able to complete the transaction today without going through probate, etc. I’m grateful I was wrong!
When we left I had told the place boarding the dogs that we would probably be gone for at least two weeks and maybe three. I never guessed we could have this project completed so quickly. We started Thursday afternoon and finished before noon on Monday and took Sunday off.
It seemed like the right people showed up at the right time all the time we were working on this project. Max left everything very organized and easy for us. I got to meet a long-time Facebook friend and Kathy got to see two old friends and all three of her kids. We had many joys and blessings along the way.
Now to travel another 1,150 miles to home. We are both ready to be home. I’m not sure Kathy will leave the house for days. She is particularly ready to be home and stay there. This trip came on the heels of her Honor Flight and is ready to get home and stay home.
Not sure where I am going to put all the stuff we have loaded in my car. Guess we will load up the shed and bring a box in the house at a time and deal with what we brought. Couldn’t even tell you what we brought home. I’m sure a lot of it we didn’t need to bring but wanted to take our time to go through things so we didn’t toss out something important. We want to honor Max’s things and make sure they are treated appropriately.
I am so grateful for how easy this project clean out has gone. I would never have betted we could leave this early. I know more things may pop up over the next couple of months but we will handle them as they do. I am also grateful for Max’s friends that helped us in many ways through this process. It was an honor to meet them.
Trusting I will have a quiet weekend when I get home. I have some emotion that will need to come to the surface to be heard and to be released. In situations like this I focus on what needs to be done and push emotion to the side. That works until it doesn’t. So far I haven’t bitch slapped someone but I can tell that urge is getting closer and closer to the surface.
Grateful for how easy it was to sell the pickup today, grateful we didn’t have to detail clean the whole apartment, and grateful for safe travels so far.