Mom's funeral expense.

Mom's Funeral Expenses


On the 23rd of November my Mom woke up. Sad that she had overslept an hour to make it to church on time. Instead, she watched preaching from the First Baptist Church of Richmond, Virginia. Mind you, Mom isn't a Baptist.

I sit beside her watching the preacher from First Baptist Church. I notice how his sermon is taken from the same text as the sermon I heard a week earlier at the Episcopal Church. We make comments to each other about the similarities and differences between the sermons.

After the sermon goes off the television. I ask her if she would like to go get some breakfast from a family run restaurant in a nearby community and she agrees. After breakfast, I remember that I need something to open up a clogged drain in my bathroom.

We wind up at Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse. Apparently, not long after we walk in she falls in the floor, unbeknownst to me. I think that Mom is enjoying herself shopping.  After a while I start calling her cell phone and she doesn't answer. First couple times, I think she must be in the bathroom.

After hours have passed I am extremely worried. I have walked around the whole store many times looking for her. Finally, I go to the front desk and get them to call her over the public announcement system. Still, she doesn't appear.

So, in desperation, I call her cell phone one last time. This time a nurse finally answers Mom's cell phone letting me know they are about to air lift Mom to a much larger hospital. (She had fallen down. How, I do not know.) One with a neurosurgeon on duty.

When I get to the larger hospital. Mom is in surgery. The medical team is trying to stop the bleeding in Mom's brain. She is having a hemorraging stroke.

For the next eleven days she lay in a hospital bed in a coma. I spend ten days with her in the hospital. (One day I had to come home to get a couple changes of clothes and my medicine.) Hoping and praying everyday that she will regain consciousness.

Finally, on the tenth day of Mom's hospital stay. Mom's neurosurgeon tells us that Mom is brain dead. I am crushed hearing the news.

I had given up my life to tend to and watch after Mom as my Dad had requested on his death bed five years earlier.  The good book says to honor your father and your mother. I thought I was doing the right thing.

Knowing that my Mom's wishes were not to live as a vegetable for the rest of her life. My sister and I decide to let her expire with dignity. There was no advanced medical directive. There was no medical power of attorney. For that matter, there was no will or life insurance.

Now we learn that Mom's funeral will cost about $7,500.. The funeral home wants the first half up front. The remainder can be paid with monthly installments.

I don't have the resources to pay a costly funeral bill. Maybe, after I sell my Mom's antiques I can cover the costs. But, this is a very bad spot to be. 

I would like to have my Mom's funeral on Saturday, December 13, 2014 at 2:00 P.M.. Bury her beside my Dad in the family plot.

I would really appreciate a donation of any size. Thank you all in advance. I really appreciate your generosity!