Might could use a prayer, or -something- (sorry it's long)
 

Ok, so when we moved into this house, 4 years ago, I met my neighbors, which is rare in AZ, normally you don't know anyone, but being in my wheelchair, people would walk up to me, so i got to know some really well. Al is my neighbor across the street. he is a great guy. He is disabled also and on SSDI and is home so we have lots of time to hang out.

Al's wife is Jan, she is also disabled but still works as an office manager for Amica insurance. Her disabilities are two bad hips, (needs transplants but she is very over weight so they can't do it) she has diabetes, and some other things, very sad shape. Al's disabilitys are he has a very bad back , and fibro.

SO, In April Jan went into the hospital for a bedsore, Al told me it was bad but only the other day i learned it was 11 cm. and that's huge for a bed sore. She went from 3 weeks in the hospital to a nursing home and has hoped to get home many times but 3 1/2 months later she is still there. When she went in, she had over 100 days of sick time and vacation banked up. Now- that is gone and she applied for both short term disability and long term but nothing has been approved yet.

In July Al's SSDI sent him a letter saying he was not eligible for it anymore..?? WHAT? so, he is appealing it with the help of his doctors, so they went from about $3900 a month income to ZERO.

Al has told me he is going to start selling things to pay the mortgage. This should be easy as Al is a hoarder. You have seen the shows maybe on Bravo or A+E or something. their house is literally packed to the rafters. when the ambulance came in April to get Jan, they could not get the stretcher in the house. they had to do a three man carry to get her out.

WELL, (again, sorry this is so long) Al has told me he is worried about losing their house. Last week the bank called them and sent them a letter saying they would start foreclosure proceedings in Oct. He was beside himself.

Last Saturday, he got a call from his 94 year old step-mother (who is a total witch) telling him his father (who is 86) fell and broke a hip. They live 75 miles away up north. I drove Al up to See him at the hospital. Al's car is old and would not make the trip. Al told me he would stay a few days and if I could come get him this last Thursday, that would be great. Wed I got a call from Al that his dad had passed away. While in the hospital getting tests for a new hip surgery, they found he had rampant lung cancer and had pneumonia and several other things. So he has passed. I asked Al what I could do to help. Al is an only child so he inherrits everything but the house and car which are his step-mothers.

His dad was also a hoarder. My prayer request is this - feel bad for being so long but I hope you understand- his dad has 3 storage units full of stuff to liquidate. How can two disabled people do this? I have no clue.

The silver lining to all of this (if you can say that in this tough time) is that in Al's dad's safe, he found some gold, to help pay Al's mortgage payments, yeah, gold - TWO POUNDS OF GOLD- WITH CERTIFICATES OF AUTHENTICITY - AL doesn't know how much it is worth, but the stress should be off him for money even though it mounts in so many other areas.

SO, that's it.

* do I win an award for longest post ever*?

Maybe they could donate the storage units contents to a local charity or half-way house. Let them go through and clean out the units, keep what they want and dispose of the rest. One less thing for Al to have to do.

I hope his SSDI gets straightened out. I've never heard of them reversing your disability payments unless they find out you're working or otherwise not disabled anymore. I hope he has a good lawyer.

How's his wife doing now? I'm sure the added stress of all that's going on isn't helping her to recover. They're all in my prayers.

Thanks for your prayers.

Most of what is in the storage units is very valuable. He has military things and uniforms from the civil war and both world wars among other things. Al and Jan have two sons (ages 36 an 34 who will hopefully will help out. the 36 year old one lives in the town where his dad lived and is a firefighter with a family, the younger one is a total slacker who lives with Al and works in a cabinet shop.

The funeral is tomorrow up north and I will be going.

Jan is very upset that she can't help out but if she was home, Al would not have been able to go up to be with his dad in his last days. She is hoping to come home by the end of Sept.

There are companies that liquidate estates. They show up, go thru your house, storage bins, or sheds, and make a list. They make arrangements for estate sales for what can sell there, and other stuff moves onto auction houses. They take a percentage of the profits.

Look in the yellow pages or internet for Estate brokers. Start making some phone calls. They get paid when your stuff sells, so there should be no outlay of income up front.

Hope that helps. I will put them all on my prayer list.

I can't be of much other help but you, your Friends Al and Jan certainly do have my prayers. Sounds like one of the prayers has been answered, in as much as his gold inheritance.

Yet another blow to their lives
 

So, they didn't need anymore stress...

The have a two story house. since about two years ago they have moved their bed down to the dining room and sleeping there since neither one of them can get upstairs easily, above the dining room is the Master Bathroom.

Scott, the younger son who lives with them came downstairs this morning to find the ceiling above the dining room had collapsed and all the sheetrock on their bed, and water all over the place, still dripping. I guess the wax ring on the toilet malfunctioned and leaked water.

It's a blessing that Al and or Jan were not in the bed when the ceiling came down. Now they have that major repair, good thing is, they have good insurance and a home warranty.

GEEZE! what's next?

(not sure if I put this in the previous post) but Al found three life insurance policies in one of the three safe deposit boxes, totaling about $70,000. he is hoping the state gets his dad's death certificates expedited so he can fill out the claim forms.

This money will save their home and really help out. I just talked to Al and will see him tomorrow at the funeral. The nursing home is allowing Jan a 6 hour pass so she can go as well. I am driving her and Scott up to their town.

Thank you all for your prayers. I will pass them on to Al and Jan .

When Al and I went to the auction a month or so ago, he did get the info for them to (someday) maybe do his dad's auction. I'm sure he will look into that. they take 30% of the total sale. which is a lot but perhaps it will still net him enough to make it worth it.

I suggest contacting other auction houses/estate liquidators. If you know some items are of historic value or highly collectible then contact those experts (museaum, colector associations) specifically for those items.

First, he has to get his hands on the will or durable power of attorney (since the father has a spouse)

Blessings upon you fo rbeing such a good friend to them!:hug:

I have no suggestions as to how to dispose of the stuff but wanted to add my two cents in on what a good friend you are to them. May God bless you all at this time.

You're a good friend Earl. :hug: I hope it all works out ok for them in the end. What a terrible run of luck they've had. God bless you all.

I agree that they should hire an auction/estate company to help liquidate the assets. There is a heafty fee but at least they won't have to do the lifting and moving of everything.

That's a lot for one person to be going through all at once. I wish him the best while he sorts through and gets everything taken care of. He has one wonderful consistent thing going for him - the friendship he has with you!

Thank you all. The words you type are very kind.

All I know is when I get to Heaven, All I want to hear is:

"Well done Good and Faithful Servant"

So on this rock, I do what I can to accomplish that.

Unfortunately, sometimes doing that bites me in the butt. I have found myself saying recently "no more Mr. Niceguy" but then I turn around and continue to put others ahead of myself. Even after being stabbed in the back like I have been the last week or so (not at all related to this situation)

30% sounds steep till you figure out that they go thru the stuff, assign a value to it, and haul it to auction for you, and deal with collection of the money for the items sold. Its a HUGE blessing when you cant do any of that for yourself. Sometimes just the task of sorting thru your own massive piles of stuff is enough to make you quit before you even get started.

I hope it all works out. :hug:

If he was a veteran the government will provide free notarized death certificates, no limit just order in one batch for simplicity. The durable power of attorney is void at the moment of his death. If he had a will that is the governing document. However, his wife will most likely get half of everything that is not itemized in the will. This includes the gold, right now a little over $1000 per ounce.

They did have a pre-nuptual agreement. Al get's everything acquired before the marriage, including the gold, and he just found 13 lbs. of silver. She gets half of what they got during the marriage, mostly household furniture and "stuff".

Heading up to the funeral today. I'm glad Jan is getting to go. Al figures he will be up there for another few days before coming home and then over the next few weeks they will liquidate the estate. Thank you all for your prayers.

Thank you all so far for good ideas
 

OK, so the funeral was beautiful. About 45 min.s which is short for a catholic funeral from reports I have heard.

Toward the end of the funeral the color guard did the 21 gun salute (Herb was a USAF vet) and presented the flag to Al's step mom, I led the mourners to a version of Amazing Grace as per Al's request.

At the house afterward Al was doing ok, having a good time talking about all the wonderful memories of his dad. he was really an interesting man. SO much life in his 84 years. (still can't remember if he was 84 or 86) Everyone was eating and mingling when Jan (Al's step mother) walked up to Al and said "excuse me, can I talk to you for a minute". Al said sure (remember, they haven' always gotten along) and told him she had something for him. She then handed him the triangle flag from the funeral. she said she thought he would want it. Al broke down, hugged her and said thank you. Very touching movement for a woman who was very cold to him in the past.

So far, Al has decided to try to liquidate most of the gold and silver once he can find legit buyers. he said some of the coins are very old (1800's) and should not be sold for scrap. The rest of it he is going to try to move to Phx in one big trip, then go through it. Since he is a hoarder, I knew he wouldn't just sell it at an auction, which is his place. I will support him in any way I can.

He is coming home today. His no. 1 son is driving him down. He told me he has about $2,000 in cash from one of the safe deposit boxes to help pay their mortgage and will get the storage units moved down in the next few weeks.

SO, thank you all for your prayers. It's still a long road he has to trek down.

Since my in-laws both died in July, Gerry and I have a similar task ahead of us. We now are half owners of the contents of a condo in Florida, as well as a whole houseful of stuff up here in Connecticut. Mom knew her antiques, and she had already sold off most of the antiques that were somewhat valuable. We thought long and hard about how we could maximize the income produced by liquidating the estate’s household possessions.

I contacted a local antique dealer who runs weekly auctions. The dealer has a website that shows all the items that are to be auctioned off that week, and he has quite a following with local collectors. What they do is collect all the stuff and move it to their auction facility. They then clean the items up, photograph them for the auction website, and auction everything off. He said that the bottom line is that our proceeds from the auction, minus their 30%, will be right around the same amount as we would get if we sold things ourselves, only we wouldn’t have to lift a finger.

Perhaps your neighbor could find an antique auction house to do all the work, while your neighbor collects all the money.