the ordeal of the will....

ok, so...the ordeal of the will is worth documenting...it all started when I took to tidying up the guest room for my brother's annual xmas visit. It came to me that I should gather together all of the relevant documents from the filing cabinet so that my mother and I could review them with mother during his visit. I found the pre-paid burial information right way...but the will done by Leslie and witnessed several Thanksgivings ago was nowhere to be found. I did find an old will, one done by my friend from home Rob that my mother had hand-edited after my father's death. She had marked out his name as executor, ands penciled in mine. She specified that her Indian jewelry go to me, and that her Hummels be divided between my brother and me. Given that my brother was coming in to town for our annual Shakertown dinner and that Andrew's girlfriend and Cayle's boyfriend would be joining us, I decided that I would type up a new will for mother using this corrected will as a template. We could discuss it all with mother after dinner, and the two not-yet family members could act as witnesses. Sounded like a plan....I even made two copies of the will, on lavender (harder to lose) paper....The signing went well worth us all sharing a laugh over Stuart being legally required to take half of the Hummel collection....Stuart left for home with a copy of the signed will and a copy of the template will, and I thought all was just fine. Until last evening, when I chanced to mention this episode to our friend Mark, the lawyer who handled Cayle's adoption. He told me that this will was not valid, because it was typed and had not been drawn up by a lawyer and signed by that lawyer. A handwritten will, in grandma's own hand could have been witnessed by two non-related individuals. Yikes! I finally got ahold of my friend Leslie this morning, and we have made plans to meet at Red Lobster with mother so that she can execute her will and notarize it before I leave for Paris on Friday. Heavy sigh.....