Old thread!! A private investigator tracked me down this mor

Update: Firstly, thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your kindness and understanding. It’s humbling to receive and I’m very grateful to you.

Under the circumstances we’ve let our two sons know, and DH let the necessary people at work know so he could take a day of bereavement leave to be with me yesterday, but otherwise we’re keeping this private.

The Public Trust Office called me this morning and let me know they had been appointed to administer Mum’s estate because she died without a will.

It turns out the private investigator who tracked me down was actually the second they’d employed, weirdly the first wasn’t able to find me at all even though DH and I have lived at the same address for well over 15 years and I’ve previously worked as a journalist (DH still does).

They also emailed me a copy of Mum’s death certificate and I learned from that her cause of death is listed as “Cachexia (3 weeks)” but she had also had advanced dementia for 5 years. She was cremated 2 days after she died.

I emailed the requested paperwork through this afternoon and that seems to be all they require from me but at some point I’m going to need to summons up the courage to ask where Mum’s cremains are.

Thank you again. 💚
..............

Once he’d confirmed my identity he cheerfully told me I’d inherited a small amount of money from my mother’s estate.

This is how I learned she died. (We’ve been estranged for about 15 years, for my and my family’s safety and well-being.)

It happened last July apparently.

I know absolutely nothing else but have phoned and ordered a copy of her death certificate from Births, Deaths and Marriages.

I feel numb and don’t know what else to do.

I don’t really know why I’m posting this and will probably delete later but it feels so surreal I guess I just need to say it out loud, so to speak.

If you’re still reading, thanks for listening.😔