![]() ![]() Thus information and research became twin weapons in the months following my father's funeral. That seemed nonsensical, but it is an absolute truth of the financial realities of death in America. I was even naive enough not to be aware that someone could still be medically billed after they died. ![]() The nearly 10 pages of hospital itemizations detailing the technicalities of the final 13 days of my father's life forced me to realize the intimidating extent of knowledge I did not have about how to handle the financial affairs - especially regarding debt - of the recently deceased. My mother and I laughed bitterly as we sat together at the dinner table, in horrified awe at the absurdity of our essentially being billed for my father's death. It may as well have been Monopoly money, for how real the implied stacks of banknotes actually felt. ![]() My family was still figuring out the expensive logistics of getting his body repatriated to our home country of Malawi, and the bill felt unreal. He had been admitted to the ICU for 13 days after nearly two years with colon cancer. When my father died of cancer in October 2018 - in a small California town named Loma Linda - we were sent a massive ICU bill in his name, exactly one week after he'd died. By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from InsiderĪs well as other partner offers and accept our ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |