been a shock to the system.
Probably not unexpected but yes, a shock. And over the course of the day it was revealed that he actually died back in July. Apparently the NYC Coroner or whatever officious department it is that deals with this sort of thing was leaning on his former landlord about who to release the body to... Former landlord went through deceased B-I-L's stuff and found our phone number. After the phone call last night that verified that we were next-of-kin sorta, gave the phone number to the NYC bureaucrats who called starting at 0830 this morning...
Deceased B-I-L had no life insurance and since he died in July (as opposed to 'last month' as Mrs. NoC was told last night) it's apparently too late to get burial assistance of whatever form from Socialist Security - something about 90 days to apply or some such, and of course NYC wants a credit card number to apply costs to.
It is as you see turning into a mucked up affair, nothing unusual when the subject is deceased B-I-L... And as was previously stated - it is a long story... ;-)
The Social Security death benefit, if I recall correctly, is only two or three hundred dollars.
Of immensely more help would be his being a veteran.
By the way, too late to donate his body to Science?