For the last four or five hours I’ve been filling out forms and sifting through my mom’s effects and taking care of wills and probate and remaining debts in the Southbury/Woodbury area of Southwestern Connecticut — her stomping grounds since ’94. This after arriving at JFK this morning at 7:30 am followed by two hour-long train trips. A nice sunny (actually fairly hot) day mitigates the mood. You can’t ignore the sadness but neither can you submit to it. Too much to write down, fill out, put in boxes, question, double check. I have this odd feeling that I’m being watched by my mom or my late father or sister or brother…maybe the whole gang en masse. Any way you slice it I’m the last of the brood. Me and the boys, I should say, along with Zak and Aura. Exhausted, of course, but doing what every sole beneficiary has to do.