Cremains & Person Articles in dispute

[ls1961]

Since my father died in 2001 his 2nd wife has refused all contact with us. We have recently become aware that she has stage 4 cancer. We want to know what she did with his cremains and would like to have some small personal items of no monetary value turned over to his children upon her death. He died in NY, she lives in NY, we are in FL. They have no children together, she has no children, my father had no other children. My father has grand children & great grandchildren through us. Do we have a legal right to know where his cremains are? Do we have a legal right to his personal items? What can we do??? She has refused to respond to any communication since his death. We have no idea why. We don't know if he left a will or any instructions. We don't know anything.

 

[dee_dub]

Procedures vary by state. You can contact the probate court in NY to see if he left a will. Whether or not you have a right to the cremains depends in large part on what was in the will, if there was one. Same for the personal items.

If you don't have any legal right to them, it still doesn't hurt to nicely ask either her or the administrator of her estate for them.