Siblings will not sign papers for cremation. Now what?
My Mom had both lung and breast cancer. I am her oldest daughter and was very close to my Mom and have been her caregiver for the last five years. Neither my brother or sister called, visited or really cared about my Mom. She recently passed away this last Tuesday.
She made it clear before her passing she wanted to be cremated and what type of service she wanted. My immediate family knew this as did her doctor and Hospice. It was not a secret.
She did not, as many people do not have this info written in her will or directives. But, being her daughter and caregiver I knew what she wanted.
When arranging her funeral services, I come to find out in Ohio, if there is more than one sibling in the family you have to have the majority sign off on it.
When I contacted my brother and sister the first thing out of their mouths was they wanted a copy of her will! Greed is so ugly.
So, much for a loving family. I was instructed by both Mom and her attorney not to let them view it before the reading. I simply conveyed that to them and now they won't sign the papers to grant Moms request to be cremated! Stating that they are uncomfortable with Moms request until they see her will! So, now I have a funeral scheduled for this coming Tuesday and my Mom is stuck in a freezer at the funeral home. For everyday she's not cremated I am incurring storage fees until this is settled in court! And I have no clue how long this will take in the courts.
Has anyone dealt with this craziness?
What am I supposed to do?
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Moms will does have me receiving 80% and knew that they would come after me, which is why I was not to show it to them. I am prepared to go to court and have witnesses who can attest to her wishes to be cremated. I will see to it that they are penalized for all costs including my time and Court costs for their petty greed.
Mom warned me they would make things hard, but I don't she anticipated this. As cremation laws are just not common knowledge these days.
I've turned it all over to God and am at peace.
What goes around comes around and I definitely would not want to be in their shoes.
Again thank you all for your input and well wishes during this sorrowful time.
In your position, I would say " fine, let's have a full corpus burial. Meet me at the funeral home so you can pick out the casket. Be sure to bring your credit card". But that's just me. I wouldn't care a fig about offending them.
Look, your mom is gone. I'm very sorry for your loss and for the further grief these morons are causing you. But think about it. You could just walk away and it wouldn't hurt mom at all.
is it fair to assume that you're aware of your mother's will ? I would suspect she might have left you more than your siblings for being her caregiver and this will be contested ? If so, reading the will isn't likely to bring resolution, but if not then share it with them
Does your mother have any brothers or sisters who can act as intermediaries and talk to your siblings ?