Probate Court

Monday, August 18, 2008, please report to the Honorable Debbie Hunnicut's office for the matter of probating Herman Light's will.

It sounds so official doesn't it? Like something you might find exciting or look forward to. NOT!! I worked for the probate court in Cobb county for a couple of years during college. I can't begin to tell you how many wills I have read, filed, and typed the newspaper notices. I have looked into the faces of hundreds of families coming to the court house to do just what my mother, younger sister and I did on Monday. As I walked into that room, I remembered those days at the Cobb county probate court and the people I ushered into their court room. I cannot recall a time ever really thinking about why they were there or feeling any sympathy for them. To me, most of these folks were just a name or a docket number that I would later file. I did check out the cause of death on the death certificates and look at their age but that was pure nosiness. They were a job to me. I looked at those ladies sitting in that office and knew that was the way they felt about us. I wanted desperately to think that maybe I was wrong. I felt so guilty for my selfishness those many years ago. I guess you gain some empathy for others as you grow up but as I thought about how carelessly I had treated those people. I was really ashamed.

Our attorney was so proud of the fact that the whole process took 10 minutes. 10 minutes was all it took to put a legal end to his 80 years? You have got to be kidding me! I know that he was trying to make my mother feel better. She was so worried about the process but I wasn't quite as proud. All I could think about was how my mother cried as she took her oath as executor of Poppa's estate. There is something so sad about the words, "Dead, as far as you know." I wanted to say, "Oh, I think she knows." She felt every word of that oath she took, promising to take care of his things to the best of her ability. No one would ever expect any less of her. Taking care of each other was what their entire life had been about.

After we left the courthouse, we stood out in the parking lot just chatting. I wondered how many times he had stood in that very spot talking about some serious city matter. And it was in that spot looking over at City Hall that we realized, he died one month ago today.