April 15th. Tax day.

Doing my taxes has never been one of my favorite things. Probably not yours either. Just seeing all that money that was taken away from us, and knowing it was just the tip of the iceberg with all the other taxes we pay on a day-t0-day basis, I usually end up in a bad mood.

This year I got to do Richard’s return as well as ours. His last ever tax return.

Writing the word “deceased” at the top of his return was a lot harder than seeing all the money the government stole from us.

Richard was a college kid. He didn’t make a lot of money. So he gets a refund of all his withholdings.

Of course the IRS has a form to fill out so you can get the refund due a dead person.  So I filled out Form 1310 and attached a copy of the court papers giving me the right to handle the legal affairs of Richard’s estate.

And it all just seems so bizarre.

He would be happy to know he was getting all his money back. I wish the check could still go to him.

As the court appointed administrator for Richard’s estate I have to provide the court an inventory of his estate.

First off, it strikes me as funny the very notion of Richard having an estate. When I think of estates, I think about houses, farms, money, cars. Richard did have a small mutual fund account. And because the summer session at his college had just started when he died, the school refunded the tuition. While I paid the tuition, Richard was legally an adult, so they issued the check to him. So that also became part of his estate.

But mostly he had credit card bills.

It’s sad taking inventory of your child’s stuff. And placing a small dollar value on it. When really that stuff has a great value in memories and dreams. No dollar amount can replace that.

But I took my accounting to my lawyer and signed the proper forms.

Yesterday I got to go to court.

In order to get access to Richard’s bank account and his mutual fund, I have to be the administrator of his estate.

I won’t go into how strange it sounds to talk about Richard’s estate – when he owed more than he owned. The lawyers call this an insolvent estate.

I also won’t go into how heartbreaking it is to talk about my son’s estate.

I started the day by meeting my lawyer, Sherman Riggs, at his office. We spent a little time going over the various forms that we would file in court. Making sure the information was correct and notarizing what needed to be.

Then we walked across the street to the court house and went into the room for the Shelby District Court.

And then we waited.

Everyone that needs to use the District Court for probate meets at the court house on Monday morning at 10:30am. Then you wait till they call your name.

Around 11am I heard the Honorable Donna Dutton call for, “The estate of Richard Morgan Mudd.” Sherman and I walked up to the judge’s bench.

We spent a few minutes as the judge and the attorney went over the papers. Judge Dutton and I chatted a little – our daughter Sarah used to babysit for the judge.

I was then asked to raise my right hand and swear an oath that I would do my best to properly take care of administering Richard’s estate.

Then we went across the hall and stood in line at the office of the District Court Clerk. Here we got the judges orders notarized. It cost $91 to file the papers. [Editorial Rant] What do the taxes we pay do anyway? You still have to pay a big fee when you use the court system. The same court system you pay taxes to support. Geez. [End Editorial Rant]

Then it was back to the attorney’s office to go over the next steps.

After finishing up with Sherman, I went to the cemetery and told Richard all about how I was going to lose money getting access to his mutual fund account. Just so he wouldn’t haunt me for leaving it behind.

I was supposed to go to court on Monday to start probate on Richard’s estate.

The purpose of the proceeding is to give me legal authority to handle Richard’s financial affairs. I need this authority to close out his accounts and clear up the final details of his financial life.

My lawyer called today. Whether by a mistake of his staff or the clerk at the courthouse, our case didn’t get on the docket for Monday. It will have to wait till next week.

We had to wait 3 months to get the death certificate. I guess one more week won’t be that important in the final big picture.

Frustrating though.