30 E. 71st St. #5A
New York, NY 10021
October 6, 2015
Dear Joan,
It’s the day of Daan’s funeral (my ex-husband), and I’ve got the plane ticket sitting here on the desk on top of the book stack. At the last minute, three days ago, I didn’t go to the airport. I simply didn’t go. If I regret the decision, then so be it. My life is in winter anyway; only a little while left to nurse regrets. I went back and rereadThe Year of Magical Thinking. The first time I read it, years ago, I recall thinking I would return to it one day, and although my situation is different than yours, with all these years that separate Daan and me, I found so much of it put word to the way I do feel, whether I have any right to or not. Of course I really don’t have the right.
Do let me know how you are getting on.
Sybil
FROM:[email protected]
DATE: Nov 1, 2015 06:15 AM
SUBJECT: Dad’s funeral
Mom, I’m back in London now. Walt brought Charles back last week, but I stayed to help Lina go through some of Dad’s things. The funeral was perfect. Held in the beautiful old Catholic church where Oma and Opa got married. I met some distant cousins, etc.
I’m having a hard time wrapping my mind around why you didn’t come. Bruce said it’s your fear of flying, fine. I know you don’t travel and I’ve told myself that’s why you haven’t ever come to visit me in London, but with all your principles of propriety, all your tenets on how one ought to be…you attend a funeral! Even if it’s someone you didn’t know well, even if you had a grudge. Fine that he’s not your husband anymore, but he was my father, Bruce’s father, Gilbert’s father. You should have been there. You know, a lot of times if I’m angry and I take a little time, my feelings will cool off, but the longer I sat with your not coming the angrier I got. Lina told me he wrote you a letter and waited for a reply, but you didn’t write back. You, who sit holed up at home and writing letters to god knows who every day, and knowing full well he was dying. I don’t understand you. I have never understood you.
Anyway, Dad left some things to you, a necklace of his mother’s you must have said you liked, a book, I think. Maybe something else. Bruce has them. He said he’ll see you in a couple weeks.
Fiona
Ms. Sybil S. Van Antwerp
17 Farney Rd.
Arnold, Maryland 21012
United State of America
9 November 2015
Dear Ms. Van Antwerp,
My name is Angela Bleeker, and I am an attorney with the law firm Drost & Drost in Brussels, Belgium. I want to start by extending my condolences for the loss of your ex-husband, Daan Van Antwerp. I have been in his employ for many years, as well as the employ of several members of his family. Daan was respectful and kind to me on the instances when we met to discuss the matter of his financials, and toward the end of his life, his estate.
You may or may not be surprised to learn that you are listed as an inheritor in Mr. Van Antwerp’s last will and testament for a sizable sum of money from his holdings, which grew substantially about six years ago when his uncle passed away. I will need to speak with you over the phone in order to go over the specifics of what we will require in order to move these funds to the bank account of your choosing, but there was no phone number listed in any of the paperwork provided by your ex-husband. Enclosed with this letter is a form. Please fill it out at your earliest convenience with your most up-to-date contact information and fax it to the number provided at the top of the page. Alternatively, you can call the number provided at the bottom of this letter, email, or respond by mail.
I look forward to speaking with you at your earliest convenience.
Angela Bleeker, Lawyer
Drost & Drost Lawyers, Belgium
Ms. Van Antwerp
17 Farney Rd.
Arnold, MD
21012
