I'd recommend having the "Ha-ha!" sound effect from that Nelson kid on The Simpsons at the ready should you think that sort of request might be approaching, Drew.

My dad has been taking Warfarin for about nine years thanks to some scary blood clots back in the oughties. I think it makes him feel a bit chillier and pee frequently when he's on the higher end of his dosage range, but no horrible side effects to report.

It makes me glad for both sides of my family -- the small side, which has handled the death of my grandfather, grandmother, and great-aunt within five-ish years, and the big side, which managed to jointly purchase and own a property to replace one that was smushed by Katrina. They're good people.

Oh I will.

It's just sad though. I'm not close to any extended family since they are mostly in Canada, so I never saw them often. It was just my parents, my sister, and I. I've never gotten along with my sister that well, and we don't have much in common, but now mom and dad are gone, and well...that's that.

Thankfully Pix's parents have always been amazing to me.

That sounds awful, Drew.

It is discussions like this that make me glad I'm an only child.

Yuuuup.

My mother has been having conflicts with her stepchildren, because last summer they got their father alone for a weekend away and tried to get him to change his will. Now, my mother and stepfather have been a couple for 28 years, and married for, like, 16 (they were pretty shy of marriage based on their divorces but then I got married and inspired them.) So it's not like she is some golddigger come lately. And he's been generous to his kids all along - like, tens of thousands generous. And in the existing will they each get $600,000. And yet this is somehow not enough. I completely do not get it.

My personal philosophy about family money is to expect nothing from anyone, and then anything I may receive will be a pleasant surprise.

It is sad, Drew, but it's not of your making, and kudos to you for walking away from it and embracing all the wonderful things you DO have in your life.

I'm sorry, ND. That's just awful that she has to be that way.

My personal philosophy about family money is to expect nothing from anyone, and then anything I may receive will be a pleasant surprise.

Yeah, mine too. I know my mother probably thinks I should be getting something from my grandfather's death because he gave properties to all his surviving children before he passed, and my father isn't alive to inherit. But I'm not expecting anything.

My personal philosophy about family money is to expect nothing from anyone, and then anything I may receive will be a pleasant surprise.

Mine is the related view that people are more important than things, even things like money.

My 2 closest cousins didn't speak to us for a couple of years after we tried to call them on the shenanigans they were pulling after my aunt died. Times like this just sometimes bring out the ugly in people. Sorry you're having to go through it, Drew. Rising above definitely seems like the right call. Will you be able to maintain a relationship with your niece without involving your sister?

Consuela, Liese, Brenda, much strength and peace.

So now I'm thinking about my grandmother who is still alive, and I think her estate is split between her two sons, which would be kind of a bummer for me, as I'm pretty sure the nursing home/Medicaid would get all of anything my father inherits. I wonder if there's any way to figure that out without being a Terrible Relative?