Taken care of business...

On Tuesday, I drove from Istanbul to Ankara and the very next day 6.a.m sharp, I hit the road for Konya. I arrived at the municipality a little after 9.a.m. and thankfully got my document that I needed without any trouble. Then I went to the Government Office related with deeds and told them I could not find the deed in mom's documents. They gave me a document to prove her ownership. By 10:30 a.m. I was done with the documents required for submission to the Inheritance Tax Office.

Then I went to the bank to which I had applied for lifting the lien on the Konya property. They had told me there were 28 outstanding checks by one of the previous shareholders and that constituted a risk for the bank so, they would not be able to lift the lien. My sister said there is a statute of limitations and they should be give me a list of the alleged 28 checks with their expiration dates. I had sent an e-mail to the guy and he never answered. So, it was time for a face to face talk. The lazy dud was sort of apologetic. he went downstairs to ops to get the list. Now, 27 of those checks have already expired. There is onşy one left to expire in November. He told me I could pay a certain amount of money for them to lift the lien. It is not a lot but, why would I pay them? I am in no rush to sell that property. I will wait till November and they will lift the lien. Victory!

I decided to visit the two cemetaries where my grandparents are buried. They both wanted to be buried next to their mothers. That is why they are in separate spots. I got some flowers and went to visit them. I told them we have just sent their daughter and they should not wait for anybody else in a looooooong time since we are now outnumbered by a lot!

The last thing on my agenda was to go see the house that belonged to my grandparents. I now own 5/6th of it and my sister owns 1/6. It is in real bad shape. I do not know what to do with it. It was kind of sad to see it like that. I have so many happy memories there. Sigh... Will think about it.

I was back home in Ankara by 6 p.m.

Yesterday morning, I went to submit the documents to the tax office. Then I went to visit mom and dad. Originally I was going to return to Istanbul today but, my sister and BIL are coming for the weekend. I have decided to stay and see them tomorrow. I will go back on Sunday.

So, today I went to visit old friends of my parents. They have called me very often during mom's sickness and they had just lost their older son. The husband is bed ridden. The wife is 82 and she is the only caregiver. They cannot afford to hire someone. Really very sad. I visited with them for an hour and then took the lady for grocery shopping. I told her to take her time and get whatever she needed to. I drove her back and carried the groceries inside. I am sure glad, I was able to be of service if only a little. 

Then, I visited old friends with whom I worked for the same company both in the US and in Turkey. They have a really nice, big garden. We spent the whole afternoon chatting away. It was such a good time. I think, this was a happy day in a very long time.

Now, I am ready to watch another episode of a Turkish show on Netflix with my BFF who lives in NY. The distance between us does not mean a thing. We are thankful for the technology available to us.