Bureaucracy Update + Calling Home

This morning I called my parents right away. I had prepared some tissue already since I knew it would be heartbreaking. I was expecting Mom to cry right away, but turned out she didn't. She talked to me about the funeral and stuff, and then after a while she cried and it made me cry, too. We reminisced about my uncle and in between we talked about other stuff, too. I found out something VERY interesting about my brother's wife. For brevity purpose, let's call my brother's wife Shen.

I'd known since a while ago that her Dad could see ghosts, but that ability had been "reduced" after he was baptised in a Catholic church. However, he still has the ability to "know" what other people are like. On my wedding day, he said to my brother, "Oh, Arttu's a good foreign guy." I felt GLAD to hear it from him, because I knew he had "special powers" (if you'd like to call it that way).

Shen doesn't like watching horror movies and she didn't want to talk about such stuff. Well, after my uncle was brought to the mortuary before he was cremated, she felt as though he wanted to talk to her, but she was so scared, so she tried to block it away. Her Dad explained to my Mom that my uncle wanted to make a contact with his daughter and that in due time the message would be revealed. He said that my uncle contacted his daughter because "there was a picture". My Mom didn't understand what Shen's Dad meant by saying those words.

You see, since my uncle had been single his entire life, you can guess what happened, right? In the mortuary, some relatives had been talking about what they wanted to do with one of his houses already. A friend of his came by and told them that he had known my uncle's assets in detail. I don't know whether my uncle had written down a will or not, but prior to his death, he had been talking about transferring his deposit accounts to my brother's name, so that when he died, the government wouldn't take it away from him. My Mom told him that from her experience, it'd be better if my uncle wrote a will.

I also talked to Dad a bit. We were both in tears. My Dad said that he surrendered to God whatever His will was...he just wanted us to keep in contact regularly, which I surely will do. Then I talked to Mom again about many things. In between we also talked about my uncle again and we cried again. Yeah...it was one of those phone calls...we talked, cried, talked, cried, talked, cried he he he he...

I'm glad to hear that my parents didn't have any regrets, though, since they had had quality time with my uncle, especially Mom. I think one of the hardest things about death of a loved one is regrets that we have. :-)))

Oh, before I forgot...Mom told me that Shen's parents had been SO WONDERFUL to them. Shen's Dad escorted my brother to my uncle's house when they found out about his death. There were cops already there and Shen's Dad was VERY helpful since he had connections with the "higher powers" in the police department. If you know anything about Indonesian police, then you'll know that they're very yucky to deal with...I'm not even going to start explaining about it 'coz it just ruins my mood...but anyway, since Shen's Dad had such connections, so the police didn't complicate the matters. Shen's Dad was also the one who reminded my brother to take all my uncle's important papers since he knew that if the police got hold of them first, then it'd take an awful lot of time and money (bribing) to get them. I'm SO happy to learn that Shen's parents' relatives came to the mortuary. Bless them!!!

I also found out that Shen and my uncle got along VERY well, too. It seemed as though my uncle really liked him and he liked the fact that my brother chose her as his wife. ;-D That was one of the reasons why my uncle was SO happy to be involved in their wedding. I'm SO glad he had enjoyed himself immensely in the party. He had even volunteered on helping Shen with the train of her wedding gown. Can you imagine his enthusiasm? I can almost imagine him that day....mmm....

My brother wrote me an email today and he said that he had many WONDERFUL memories with my uncle, even though they had been close only for a short amount of time. When my brother ordered some bedroom furniture set and the whole thing was sent to my parents' house, my uncle came right away to see it. Ahhh...dear uncle, you were so sweet!!! :-)))) Enough about him or else my eyes will be bulging tomorrow he he he...

Anyway, after calling home, I went to the photo studio to have my passport photos taken. It cost me €15 to get 4 passport photos. Gee, so expensive!!! Well, at least I had the money HE HE HE HE HE HE...I was glad 'coz I could practice a bit Finnish in the photo studio. *grin*

Then I walked straight to the police station. I had to wait for a while in the waiting room as there was somebody else inside. When she came out, turned out that it was one of my Russian friends!!! We kept on bumping into each other downtown he he he he...She brought her baby girl with her...SO cute!!! ;-D

I walked into the inside room and spent a good half an hour there, maybe more. The woman in charge read all the forms first and then she entered some info online and printed out some things, then she went to another room twice to photocopy some of my papers. One funny thing was that I gave her the CD of our emails and chat files right before I left, just in case they needed it, and apparently she misunderstood. She said, "For me? Thank you." Oh dear...I ALMOST laughed!!! Gladly I could show my poker face and replied, "No, for residence permit purposes." She thanked me again and her face didn't register any embarrassment or whatsoever hi hi hi hi hi...I told this incident to Arttu just now and he laughed he he he he...

Right after that, I browsed for some shoes but decided not to buy them as they were FAR FAR FAR too expensive, even with a 40-70% discount. Goodness!!!

Oh yeah, when I came back home, guess what I found? My brother's wedding pics. YAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY!!! He sent small files 'coz he's still using a modem (slow internet connection), but he's going to burn the whole wedding picture and video to DVDs for me and send them to me. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY!!! Anyway, here are the pics! I was surprised to see my Mom in the pics. She looked DIFFERENT. Gorgeously different! I had never seen her THAT radiant before!!! ;-D

First pic: the bride and groom and my parents.



Second pic: the bride and groom and both sets of parents.



Third pic: the bride and groom and my parents' big family. I've marked my uncle with an X.