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{ Category Archives } cancer

A bequest to Malvern Archers

Chris was a keen archer when I first met him. He had shot for his University and was a member of the local archery club. Although his interest waned in recent years  he still had all of his archery equipment, which in its day was good-quality stuff. His Will was really very simple, leaving almost […]

Feeling about four again……

I’m handling most of the probate myself, but there is one bit I’m more comfortable getting professional help on. That’s getting the house moved into my sole name – we bought it as “tenants in common” which means it doesn’t automatically come to me, rather the ownership gets transferred in accordance with his Will. So […]

A useful book

The Consumer’s Association (Which?) publishes a useful book called “What to do when someone dies“.  I’ve had it on my Amazon wish list since January – how sad is that? They update it every year with the latest tax regime etc, so I didn’t want to buy it immediately after Chris was diagnosed, in the […]

Giving blood

The blood donation nurses visited work today for their regular donor session in our conference room. I went along as usual to give blood, but it felt much more poignant this time. I couldn’t help remembering how much better Chris felt after his two blood transfusions. Each one gave him so much more energy – […]

Donating the car

I blogged a few weeks ago about donating our little Polo to charity via giveacar.co.uk.  At the time, I expressed doubts as to whether it was all too good to be true. So I thought it only fair that I update the blog to say that it’s all worked very smoothly. I phoned  giveacar on […]

Applying for probate

Somehow, applying for probate seems like a huge step to take – though a very necessary one if I ever want to be able to access Christopher’s savings. The probate office of HMRC were very helpful and sent me all the forms straightaway back in August. But I found the forms surprisingly intimidating and kept […]

Phew! The blog’s still here…..

I really wasn’t convinced that this blog would survive to the beginning of October. Chris had paid for the web hosting service until the end of September, and the company concerned is the one I’ve had the most trouble with, when trying to get things moved into my name. The email traffic, phone calls and […]

A sense of community

Malvern is a medium-sized town, but sometimes it has quite a small-town feel about it. Pretty much every time I go into town shopping, I meet someone I know and stop for a chat. This seems to astonish my sister, who has been visiting recently, as she lives in commuter territory in Greater London where […]

….and a hook for the bathroom door

I took another donation along to the hospice on Thursday, in addition to an envelope full of cheques. I didn’t want to give it to the Appeals Director along with the money, as I’d never met her before so wasn’t sure whether she had a sense of humour. However, I noticed that the receptionist was […]

St Richard’s Hospice

I went back to the hospice today give their Appeals Director all the donations which people so kindly gave in memory of Christopher – both at the crematorium and subsequently via the funeral director.  The total came to just under £1500, which I then matched. Together with whatever is raised by the scrapping of the […]