AIN'T THAT THE WAY

During my dad’s year long ordeal with a partial foot amputation & many hospitalizations, there were lots of times when things had to be done quickly. He had numerous surgeries & procedures, both inpatient & outpatient at several different hospitals.

Since I am the “DIC” – my terminology for Daughter In Charge – most of the planning, implementing & overseeing fell to me. During this time I had to go to my dad’s safe deposit box at his bank to retrieve his Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care Wishes. About the third time of having to do this, I simply kept the papers at his house to make life a little easier for me. I noticed at the time that there was hardly anything left in the safe deposit box anymore & wondered if he should just get rid of it.

Time went on, the foot began slowly healing & suddenly my dad was totally on board with moving up here closer to us, Praise the Lord. The stress – physically, mentally & emotionally – was taking a toll on me but I knew there was an end in sight once the old house was sold, the new house purchased & he was moved.

A few weeks before the scheduled move I decided to go take everything out of the safe deposit box & close it out. I went into his bedroom where the keys are ALWAYS kept, hanging over the ear of a strange looking kangaroo figurine on his dresser. BUT they weren’t there. Both keys were on the same key ring with nothing else except the tag with the box number. I looked all over the top of the dresser, but no keys. Shit!

I knew I was the last one to use them when I took the Power of Attorney papers out sometime in the past six months. I pulled the dresser out, looked behind it – no keys. I was pretty sure that they were either in a purse I had used or the pocket of one of my jackets. I figured they had to turn up before long.

At home I pulled every old purse out of the closet & looked in each one with no luck finding the keys. Then I started checking jacket pockets – no keys. Shit, again! I knew it was totally my fault & told my dad that I would pay the cost of lost keys since I’m the one who didn’t put them back. In my defense, it was a crazy, hectic time….but still, my “bad” & no one else’s. My dad completey understood & said he would pay for it.

I went to the bank expecting maybe $25 per key, but was hit with an expensive surprise - $125 to drill out the lock (in mine & a bank employee’s presence)! I asked, “What if I don’t want anything left in the box?” All I could remember seeing was an expired passport & a couple of birth certificates which could easily be replaced if needed. Unfortunately, the only way to avoid the fee was to close all of his accounts, open new ones at another bank & just not pay the renewal fee. But that meant changing all kinds of automatic payments or deposits & getting new checks in the midst of the moving chaos. My dad said, “Just pay the damn money!”

The day before he moved I was at the bank to drill out the safe deposit box. It took all of about five minutes including some chit chat along the way. The pink slip for his car was about the only thing of value in the box & I’m betting that could have been replaced for a whole lot less than $125.

Anyway, it really irked me that they charged so much but my dad was okay & I had pretty much forgotten about it – until today. It was a chilly day so I grabbed a bright pink fleece jacket that I rarely wear but it matched the pink in my paisley top perfectly. As I put my hands in the pockets while walking into the store, guess what I found? Yep, the safe deposit box keys! Not sure how I missed checking that one, but I did. Shit!