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.