Ghosts...

I am a ghost hunter.

Wait, no that's not right.

I am a ghost catcher.

No, still not it...

At the end of the month we will be going down to New Mexico to finish the last bit of Ann's estate. She had a safety deposit box that we need to open and empty. That's the last piece. We found the keys when we were cleaning out her house last year but couldn't open the box at that time because we only had a copy of the will. We needed the original will. Which we assume is in the box since we never found it. 

Don't put the original will in a safety deposit box unless your executor is also listed on the box. Just so you know. It makes it much harder to deal with everything.

But now we have been through probate with the copy of the will that we had. We can open the box. 

We had tried to get the bank to open it on Brent's authorization. Just send them the keys and copies of the letter of testamentary and a copy of the death certificate and then they could open it and send us the contents. We had thought it would be easy considering there was a pandemic on so travel was not easy, or recommended. And our first contact at the bank thought it would be easy as well. But her supervisor told her no, we could not do that. Brent had to open it in person. 

So we are flying down to New Mexico at the end of the month, once our vaccines are fully activated, and opening the box. My guess for contents? The aforementioned original copy of the will, his dad's military papers, a copy of his dad's death certificate and a copy of their marriage license. I'm pretty sure that's what will be in there. Possibly her passport if she had one. Nothing earth shattering, and really nothing we need. But...we don't know for sure so we are flying down to New Mexico to open a box. 

Now you are asking why we are both going. Or at least I would be asking if I were you. Why pay for two tickets and a hotel room just to open a box? And I can see it. I mean, we talked about it. If there were more flight options so we could have gotten a longer time between flights it probably would have been a fly down, open the box, fly home all in one day event. And then...well...I probably still would have gone with him. 

Because I'm a ghost shield. That's it.

I am a ghost shield. 

I will serve the same purpose I did when we went to New Mexico last year after Ann died. There was no reason for me to be there. Like, official reason. Brent was the sole heir. He was the name on the paperwork. There was nothing I could do to help with the processes. Except shield him from some of the ghosts. 

I sorted paperwork. 
I dug through drawers and looked in baskets.
I checked bookshelves.
I packed pictures and letters and mementos he might want later. 

He didn't have to. He didn't have to see the stack of letters between his father and his mother from the time Jack served in Vietnam. He didn't have to look at the Christmas letters from his Grandfather. He didn't have to see the things Ann had from her childhood and mementos of the complicated relationship she had with her own mother. He didn't have to see all of the accumulated things that had been tucked in boxes, stored away. He just had to deal with the things that had to be dealt with. 

While I handled the ghosts. 

And I know that I'm a pretty piss poor shield, actually. I only kept away some. But ghosts bleed around edges. The sneak in through the cracks. They are already with us. 

So I couldn't, and I can't keep all of the ghosts away. But I can help. 

We are flying down to New Mexico and the end of the month to open a safety deposit box. One we assume is filled with a handful of important papers and nothing else. 

But just incase there is more...

I will be there. 

Shielding him from whatever ghosts I can.