Theater of the Soul

I’ve mentioned several times here that my parents died when I was fairly young. My father died when I was 13 and my mother died when I was 17. This March will mark 20 years since my mother’s death.

Since I own a business and am also a student, I get an obnoxious amount of junk mail. I’m talking ENORMOUS amounts of junk mail. Credit card offers, insurance advertising and home improvement flyers top this list. I’ve gotten fairly good at instinctively knowing what is actual mail and what’s junk mail. So on Monday afternoon, while sorting through the mail delivery for the day, a large white envelope passed through my hands into the trash pile. Then I stopped and picked it up for a closer look. It was from an insurance company that I had never heard of before and something told me to open it.

The first thing that caught my eye was my mother’s name, along with my maiden name (I kept my married name after the divorce). Strange, says I, and I proceeded to read on. The first line of the letter said, “We would like to extend our deepest condolences on the recent death of your mother”.

Truly one of those “What the fuck?” moments.

Anyways, the letter informed me of a life insurance policy that my mother took out on me when I was 14. This is news to me. Anyways, I called the company and apparently I have to get a copy of my mother’s death certificate and send it in, so that ownership of this policy can be switched to me. Fine and dandy.

But what really makes me curious is: What other insurance policies am I uninformed of? My guardians (not the most responsible people in the world) took care of my mother’s estate after she died and I recieved a $10,000 life insurance payout on her from one policy when I turned 18. I’ve since broken off contact with these people and would really rather not re-establish contact with them in order to find out about my mother’s financial records or will, but I have NO clue where to even begin looking for the lawyer that set up her will. Would her lawyer even have those records? And how the fuck did this insurance company find me after all these years? I’ve moved so many times since I was 17 that even I can’t recall exactly where I’ve lived and when.

Anyone out there ever tried to get estate information on a long-dead relative that can point me in the right direction? I don’t even know where to start.

It’s all so very strange and surreal.