Foreclosure

Dear Gregory:

According to documents filed at the County Clerk’s Office, foreclosure proceedings have recently been commenced against your home or other real estate. As you may know, these proceedings may eventually result in the sale of your property at public auction. However, we may be able to help you save your property and stop a foreclosure sale from taking place.

This letter from a lawyer came on Friday last week and suggested that my brother Greg hire him. It was my first hint that foreclosure proceedings have been filed against his house. But then again, with Greg dying five months ago and no house payments being made since, it’s not a surprise. My hands have been tied this entire time. I’m still sitting on several checks made out to him, unable to cash or deposit them, even though I need the money to pay his bills. Then again, with the courts denying my petition to be administrator, it’s not my problem.

The other odd thing that happened was that last Friday, ten minutes before the French tutor was due to come to the house, the doorbell rang. I just happened to be changing in the bedroom, so the kids got the door, thinking it was the tutor. It wasn’t. Some strange man said that he represented something (the only word Alexandra could repeat to me was “marshal”) and asked whether Gregory live at this house.

Stunned, Alexandra answered, “He’s dead.”

Now it was the guy’s turn to be taken aback. He said he was sorry and didn’t seem to know what to say, and he left before I got to the door to ask who he was or what he wanted. Only later did I begin to wonder: did he have something to do with the foreclosure?