SEPTEMBER 14, 2023 – At around 4:30, UB’s van appeared in the driveway. His return signaled that it was time to take another run at sorting out Mother’s inheritance. He acknowledged me but not uncivilly, which meant he withheld a negative greeting such as the “Uh-oh” I’d received the day before. I followed him up …

SEPTEMBER 13, 2023 – It was 1:30 a.m. when my phone’s ringtone woke me from a deep slumber. It was Cliff. “What the hell?” I answered. “What’s happenin’?” “Apart from no longer being sound asleep, not much. What’s up?” I said, still trying to find my bearings. Cliff explained that he’d just returned to his …

SEPTEMBER 12, 2023 – At noon on Saturday I appeared at the back door of 42 Baghdad Street. My knocking prompted a loud unwelcoming “Hello!” Quick footsteps to the doorway followed but the door opened only enough for UB to identify his visitor. “Uh-oh,” he said. It wasn’t the friendly “uh-oh” of faux-dismay but an …

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023 – I took UB’s statement—“Send me a proposal”—at face value. On the flight home I spelled out in bullet-point form the terms of a plan for accountability, closing out Gaga and Grandpa’s estates, and distributing Mother’s share.  I knew the centerpiece would be 42 Lincoln. Consistent with what I’d told UB, whatever …

SEPTEMBER 10, 2023 – My mission on that trip to New Jersey was a failure except to the extent I now knew that probate cases had been opened—though nothing had progressed beyond the most preliminary steps.  UB was released from the hospital the next day, thus ending my free access to his “record storage system” …

SEPTEMBER 9, 2023 – As luck would have it, UB’s release from the hospital was slated for the end of the week, if he passed all his tests and his cardiologist approved. His confinement would afford me unfettered access to his chaotic files and papers. But first I had to rack up another round of …

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023 – One morning a couple of months later, Cliff called to inform me that UB was back in the hospital, this time as a consequence of UB’s diabetes in combination with heart issues. “Nothing too serious,” said Cliff, “but according to his doctor enough to keep him under observation for a couple …

SEPTEMBER 7, 2023 – The next morning I flew back to my normal life back in Minnesota. Between work and family I had plenty to distract me from 42 Baghdad Street. I would remain distracted until a couple of weeks later when Cliff called with an update, as planned. “Hey, Cliff,” I answered, stretching the …

SEPTEMBER 6, 2023 – Cliff and I had labored over the presentation. First was my script, for it was decided that since I was the true nephew, it was important for me to deliver the message, though I was “Minnesota,” and Cliff was “New Jersey,” and the message definitely had to be “New Jersey Direct” …

SEPTEMBER 5 2023 – After the warehouse tour (See 9/3/23 post), we encountered an Asian woman exiting her car parked in the driveway behind the warehouses. “Young-hee!” Cliff called out. “What brings you back here?” I recognized the name. (See 8/26/23 post). Our introduction triggered what could have been an even more revealing conversation than …

SEPTEMBER 4, 2023 – The American Field Service Ambulance Corps, which morphed into the modern day “AFS” (think: “AFS exchange students” and other global intercultural affairs), was established in April 1915 to support the Allied war effort on the Western Front. Before the U.S. entered the conflict in April 1917, it became de rigueur among …

SEPTEMBER 3, 2023 – With UB in the hospital and out of our hair, Cliff suggested we that we take a little tour of the more troubled realms of the warehouse.  “A few weeks ago,” he explained, “we had this big snowstorm that dumped tons of snow on the roof, and when it melted, it …

SEPTEMBER 2, 2023 – Later that morning following UB’s emergency re-hospitalization, I borrowed Cliff’s van and drove to Passaic General to visit the patient. His procedure—draining fluid off his heart—had gone well and by the time of my arrival, UB was as alert as ever. In fact, for the first time I could remember he …

SEPTEMBER 1, 2023 – Whenever I seek and am denied permission, I remember that forgiveness is more easily obtained.  Cliff and I didn’t exactly ask for the hospital staff for permission to confront UB with the “contract,” but in effect permission is what we sought when the nurse at the desk answered our question with …

AUGUST 31, 2023 – That evening while the Serb was exiting UB’s life for good—or so we led ourselves to believe, despite Jeanette’s prescient skepticism—Cliff with his customary directness urged resolution of the issues that UB had created for himself, for all of us.  The master of horror convinced me that now was the time …

AUGUST 30, 2023 – After we signed in at the security desk, Cliff led the way to the cardiology unit and strode straight into UB’s room.  “Look who just arrived from Minnesota!” said Cliff. “Ha!” said the patient, seated in a large recliner next to his bed.  “Great to see you!” His eyes lit up. …

AUGUST 29, 2023 – We met in the kitchen.  His eyes were dark and nervous, and he looked scared and pathetic. Just as Nina had observed, Alex had the shakes. A very bad case of them. I started right in on the deposition, as it were. “Sit down, Alex.  I have some questions I need …

AUGUST 28, 2023 – The back entryway was bursting with clutter.  I stopped to survey the wreckage: a broken umbrella; large plastic garbage bags stuffed with crap; shovels and rakes leaning in all directions of the compass; several randomly placed outdoor thermometers still in their K-Mart packaging; a precarious pile of rotting newspapers with an …

AUGUST 27, 2023 – His health crisis per se wasn’t the prime motivation for me to make a hastily arranged flight to New Jersey for the first time in seven and a half years.  Who knows how much longer it would have been had he not undergone emergency, triple bypass surgery.  It was the opportunity …

AUGUST 26, 2023 – In time, my anger and disgust toward UB dissipated.  Perhaps it was simply time and distance that allowed me to move on, or maybe the demands and distractions of my daily existence back in Minnesota displaced the demons that had temporarily overpowered me in New Jersey.  The story of the “man …

AUGUST 25, 2023 – When I arrived in Rutherford the next morning, no one was around.  However, UB’s Headquarters were wide open, so I entered, poked around to find what I could among all the water-logged papers and piles of junk.  I began copying an appraisal and soon decided simply to stuff the thick, spiral-bound …

AUGUST 24, 2023 – I remember well the day:  Sunday, September 20, 1998.  After a restless sleep as a guest at Jenny and Garrisons’s Upper West Side apartment, I decided it would serve me well to go to church, more for refuge than anything else.  And if revelations, observations, conversations of the past week impelled …

AUGUST 23, 2023 – UB served as navigator to Route 17 leading north.  We then fell silent, as UB opened up the day’s edition of The Times.  After a few miles, though, I glanced over and noticed that his hands had sagged and the paper, still open, had crumpled onto itself.  UB’s chin was on …

AUGUST 22, 2023 – At 6:30 that Friday and according to plan, I rode with Cliff to his house in Pompton Lakes for dinner and an overnight stay.  It was an evening I will never forget, and an occasion on which I would gain further and surprising insight into this Holman tenant turned unlikely Holman …

AUGUST 21, 2023 – That afternoon, while UB putzed around amidst the collection of jumbled junk and trash that filled his headquarters area, I sat down at the desk in Headquarters Central to read and respond to my office email. As I waited for my laptop to fire up, I turned to the metal shelves …