You'd think they'd know better

Phone rings, it's the division of the hospice company that provided the medical equipment. The woman wants to know about the delivery of the equipment, asks if the pieces on her list were delivered, was I shown how to use it (I tell her yes, really fast, and if I'd had to rely on that run-through to operate the equipment, I would have been out of luck). Then she wants to know if the equipment is still running okay. "He's dead," I say. She's only brought up short for a second. Continues on, and eventually asks if I need any more equipment. "He's DEAD," I repeat. She finally gets the message and wonders then if I need the equipment picked up. So I tell her it was done yesterday. At least, unlike most of the people I've spoken to today, at Social Security and the bank and somewhere else, she didn't finish up the call by saying "Have a nice day!"

Out of three lawyers I called, the first one turned out to be the first one to call back, so I have an appointment a week from tomorrow to meet with her. She thinks I might be able to avoid probate and do something called a "small estate affidavit," which I have to Google later.