Chris and Andre

Andre and I shared glances, “We recognize you from the funeral, so we know you’re Ollie’s grandmother, but why are you here?”

  

“I’m here about the ashes. The funeral people phoned to tell me the ashes are available and want to know what I’m going to do with them. I really don’t know what I should do, and I want to know what Ollie thinks before I tell the funeral people. What do you think Ollie will want to do with them?”

I was surprised and relieved because I didn’t expect her to be here for such a practical matter. The look Andre gave me said he felt the same.

“We won’t answer for Ollie. He’s mature enough to give his own opinion.” I looked at Andre who nodded. “We’re prepared to talk to Ollie tonight about it and let you know his opinion.”

“Thank you. I’d like that.” She paused. “There’s something else”

We waited for her to continue.

“I know what happened to Ollie. I know what Jeff did to him. After he was arrested, I made it my business to find out all I could. It wasn’t easy but I persisted at the courthouse and was present when the charges were read out. No names were given and no one would say who the victim was, but I knew. I knew it was Ollie.” She started to sob. I fetched a box of tissues and put it in front of her. She used one to wipe her eyes. “I didn’t know. I let Ollie down.” More tears. “What’s worse is the girls wouldn’t believe me. Ruby was worst. Accused me of peddling the police conspiracy.” Another tissue.

Andre suggested we have a coffee. We agreed and Andre left us while he made the coffees. I let Mrs Cameron calm down while we waited. She kept apologizing and asked us to call her Debbie. Andre returned with the coffees and some Tim Tams.

Debbie thanked Andre and then added, “When I heard that Ollie was in foster care, I was worried about him but when I found out what Jeff had done, I knew Ollie was better off in care, even if I didn’t know where.” She stopped and looked at us. “I didn’t think you’d let him come to the funeral. To his mother’s funeral. But you did. And, you came with him. You are good people.” She wiped her eyes again.

Andre spoke softly, “Debbie, Ollie wanted to go to his mother’s funeral. It was good for him to attend, so we made sure he did. But I want to make it clear it was because Ollie wanted to attend.”

“Even though it was at his mother’s funeral, Ollie still looked better than I’ve seen him for a long time. I can see you are taking good care of him.”

I responded, “Thank you for saying that. We hope that we are taking good care of Ollie. We love him as a son.”

She smiled, “Thank you. Please continue to take care of him.”

“We will do our best. But do you mind if I ask you a question?”

“What do you want to know?”

“Ollie is obviously important to you. Why didn’t you offer to look after him?”

“Believe me, I wanted to, but my girls wouldn’t let me. Especially Ruby.”

“That explains a few things. As I said we’ll talk to Ollie about the ashes and, if you give us your phone number, we’ll let you know.”

We exchanged phone numbers, or more accurately we asked Debbie to give us her number and then we called her and helped her list us in her contacts.

“There’s something else. Christine didn’t have a will. I don’t know what to do. The funeral people said I should see a solicitor, but Ruby says I don’t have to do anything. We just keep everything.”

Andre sat with Debbie, “I’m not a solicitor, but I know about the financial side of estates. For instance, have you told the bank that Christine has died?”

“No, I haven’t. I suppose I should.”

“Yes, you should. Take the death certificate with you. They will freeze the accounts.”

She became agitated, “If they do that, how do I pay for the funeral?”

“The funeral is the one thing the bank will pay but, that’s the only thing they’ll pay. You still need some legal advice. We can suggest a friend, or you can go to the courthouse for advice.”

“Let me think about it, but I’ll go straight to the bank this afternoon.”

That done we were about to say goodbye when she had another request, “Do you think it’d be possible for Toby to visit Ollie? They were good friends.”

I responded, “Yes it’s possible. You understand we would talk to Ollie first.”

Andre asked, “Are you looking after Toby?”

“Yes. I’m taking care of him. Everything’s good.”

Andre continued, “I remember him with you at the funeral. What’s with his parents?”

There was a pause while she considered us. “Toby’s my son’s boy. His mother walked out on them before he was two and then a year later his father went off and I don’t know where he is. Toby’s been with me ever since.”

I gently asked, “How long has Toby been with you?”

“Eight years. I love him but it’s been hard.”

“What help have you had?”

“Help? I can’t ask for help because he’s my grandson and anyway they’d probably take him away and that would kill me. Ruby keeps warning me.”  

That wasn’t our experience, as Andre conveyed, “I think Ruby’s wrong. I don’t think Child Services will want to take him away after eight years and I think you are entitled to some financial help.”

“Really? Are you sure?”

“As sure as I can be. I’ll do some more checking, and we can talk more when you bring Toby over to visit Ollie.”

“That will happen?”

“As Chris said, we’ll check with Ollie, but I’m sure it will happen.” 

We finished and as Debbie was leaving she turned. “I saw Margaret at the funeral. You need to talk to her. She has some important information about Ollie.” She then slowly walked to her car.

 

That night while we were eating, I decided to discuss the ashes. “Ollie, your Nona visited us today.”

He was interested and looked up. “Oh. What did she want?”

“You understand that your mother’s body was cremated?”

“I guessed that. We didn’t go to a grave after the service. So is something wrong?”

“No nothing’s wrong. Nona would just like to know what you’d like to happen to the ashes.”

“Ahh dunno. What do people usually do.”

“Lots of options. Some people keep them at home.”

“Yuk! Don’t want that.”

We smiled. “Some people scatter the ashes and cemeteries have memorial walls where the ashes are placed and sealed and a name plaque attached.”

“I think I’d like that. The memorial wall thing.”

“Yes, I think that is a good choice. Nona also asked if Toby could visit you.”

“Really! Wow. Yes that would be cool. I like Toby.” 

Andre grinned at me. “Fine. We’ll let your Nona know.”

 

It wasn’t difficult getting everyone to agree to a BBQ lunch on Sunday. Debbie and Toby arrived about 10.00 so Toby and Ollie could spend time together and Andre could tell Debbie what he had discovered about the assistance she could apply for. That left me with feeding everyone. I didn’t mind. Someone had to christen the new BBQ.

One thing she told Andre was that she had been to the bank, and they had frozen Christine’s accounts. Ruby was furious about that and wanted Debbie to tell the bank to unfreeze the accounts. The bank on the other hand were concerned about some debit and credit card use after Christine’s death.

 

Ollie started by taking Toby on a tour of the apartment and my shop, concentrating on the studio. Not long after that Ollie asked if Riley could join them and the three disappeared into Ollie’s room to play games.

Over lunch Debbie let me know that she was grateful for Andre’s advice and indicated that he had helped her with some applications. She also told us that she had instructed the funeral parlour to organize for Christine’s ashes to be placed in a Memorial Wall, with a name plaque. Ollie gave a thumbs’ up for that. 

Ollie was helping me clean up in the kitchen. “Dad, you know how Toby is living with Nona?”

“Yes, Nona told me that he has been with her for about eight years.”

“He doesn’t have a games console and his phone is really crap.” I let Ollie continue. “He says they don’t have much money. He’s a good guy. It would be cool for us to give him a good phone and a game console. Can we do that?”

Ollie, Andre and I are really impressed that you want to share with your friends. The electronic stuff you’re asking about was sent to the awesome4some for review. It’s really up to you guys to decide what you do with it.”

“Oh yeah it is, and Bradley gave some to his siblings. So, I can give some to my cousin.”

I smiled at his reasoning, “Sure, as long as you give it some thought.”

Toby was very happy with his new phone and gaming set up with some games. We did have to explain about the awesome4some and reviewing products to Toby and Debbie before the items were accepted.

Our BBQ on the new deck did not go unnoticed and Beau reminded us that we had not had a “housewarming.” He was right so we decided on a date. We also wanted it to be a family party and to include not only our friends and family but also all the guys who had worked on renovating the shops and apartment.

 

Before the housewarming Andre received two visitors. The first was Margaret, and after they discussed her financial affairs, she asked if I would join them. I was curious about this especially after Debbie’s comment about Margaret having important information about Ollie.

“Thanks for joining us Chris because I have information that both of you need to know about. How much you tell Oliver is up to you, but I think it will be a few more years before he needs to know. When Dan was killed, he had business insurance and personal death insurance. His will left everything to Christine, except half of each of the insurance policies which were to be put into a trust for Oliver. Alistair and I, were named as the trustees of Oliver’s trust account.”

I was still taking this in when Andre inquired, “So you are now the sole trustee?”

“Yes, I am now, but I would like you, Andre, to become a second trustee. I’m sorry for not including you Chris, but I believe Andre will be better because of his financial knowledge.”

“You two are the financial experts and I’ll stay out of that as long as you stay out of the IT side of my business.” We were all happy.

Andre was back to business. “How big is this trust account?”

Margaret smiled, “Andre, you know it’s not a question of how big it is now but how big it will be, with your help, when Oliver turns twenty one, but for now let’s say it’s a good investment portfolio.”

“OK I can take a hint. I’ll leave you two to sort out the details.”

 

The next day, the second visitor arrived to see Andre. Debbie had been to the courthouse and was told about applying for the letters of administration needed to manage the estate. Debbie wanted the administrator to be Andre. I agreed and pointed out that she would ask him to do the financial side of the estate anyway, and it would relieve Debbie of any likely pressure from Ruby.

Ollie liked his Nona and Toby and, so far, Debbie had shown concern for Ollie and followed all of our advice. It seemed it would be worthwhile, in the long run, to help her.

 Andre had a friend, Robert Smith, who was a solicitor. We had used him for our legal work. When Andre explained the situation, Bob agreed to work pro bono to finalize the estate. After the way Christine had treated Ollie we did not want anything to do with her, but saw finalizing her estate as helping Ollie. Legally he was her sole beneficiary, and we wanted to make sure that he received what he was entitled to no matter how little that might be.

That afternoon when Ollie returned from school, we told him about the ashes and only about the ashes. The rest could wait until we knew more. Ollie immediately wanted to go out the cemetery to see.

We parked and walked across the manicured green lawn to the Memorial Wall. I had used my phone to look up the exact location of Christine’s ashes. We stood and Ollie reached out and touched the brand new plaque. It was simply inscribed with Christine’s name and the dates of her birth and death.

Without saying anything Ollie stepped back and then asked, “Can we visit Dad’s grave?”

We all knew the location of Dan’s grave and very soon we were standing next to it. Again, we left Ollie to have a few moments to himself. Again, he knelt and softly talked into the grave.

That night Ollie asked for a dads tuck in. We each kissed his forehead and said goodnight. He looked up at us. “Thanks for taking me out there again, and to Dad’s grave. Dad told me I don’t have to worry about mum anymore. She’s with him again and he’ll take care of her. He told me he’s not worried about me anymore. He likes my new parents and how they look after me.” There was a pause, “Goodnight Dads. I love you.”

Outside Ollie’s bedroom we each wiped away a tear.

 

It seemed that everyone was waiting for us to have the housewarming party. Even though we gave everyone less than two weeks’ notice, the acceptances poured in along with offers of help. Lachlan couldn’t just be a guest at a party and insisted on organizing the BBQ cooking, especially after he decided our BBQ wasn’t big enough for the party and he’d bring his own to use. I tried to protest, but Andre told me I was now part of his family and that’s what Lachlan did for family.

It seemed every tradie who had worked on the apartment and shops accepted, including their partners, and when they had them, their children. Obviously, Michael and Jamie, and Logan and Ashley were invited. We invited Noah, because he was the agent we used to buy the properties and to “sell” the townhouse. That meant Calvin would be there. Of course, Ollie would be there, which was one of the reasons we made it clear that the invitation included children and to make that easier it was an afternoon/evening party.

Ollie invited the awesome4some and for Bradley that included his parents and siblings. He also invited a couple of other friends and Toby, which included Debbie.

I thought we had lost control of the party when Lachlan, Carol and Skye took over the food preparation, but that was nothing compared to the awesome4some. They took over entertainment. As well as music, an area was set up for the under fives to watch cartoons and videos such as ‘Bluey’ on TVs and tablets. Other rooms were taken over for gaming. Tyron managed to borrow an even more elaborate VR set up and set it up in Andre’s ‘conference room’.

Andre and I were left in charge of providing drinks for everyone. Fortunately, with advice from Tyron and Ollie we had that covered.

One thing I did not expect was that Jackson and his girlfriend Emma would take the Friday and Monday off university and share the driving for the ten hour trip from Melbourne to Gosford. It was not surprising that when they arrived on Friday night they were hungry, so we made sure dinner included them. While eating we were able to find out more about Emma. All good. Later, they gave Ollie a big brother and a big sister goodnight before they headed for the guest room and closed the door. I would later discover that while they had confirmed being able to use our spare bedroom, their presence at the party was a surprise, but a very happy surprise, for Michael.      

 

The party was a success with a wonderful family atmosphere. As well as friends, everyone involved in the renovation was invited and attended. It did eventually dawn on me that this wasn’t just a customer’s housewarming. Because Lachlan had told everyone he was semi-retired and nominated Andre and Beau to manage the business the tradies decided this was also another, Lachlan like, work party. The guests spread out over both shops, the apartment, the new deck and back yard, so it at no time felt crowded.

The little kids enjoyed watching cartoons or YouTube on the TVs or tablets. The games room was fully occupied by the adolescents and young tradies. The fun activity was the VR room. The most popular VR game was a Star Wars light sabre fight. In the VR world the fighters appeared as Star Wars characters. I was surprised how many couples wanted to “fight” against their partners or spouses in this VR world. Safe I suppose!

David and Chelsea thanked us for being invited as part of the awesone4some family. We explained that they would have been invited anyway as our friends.

“You’ll be pleased to know that everyone’s happy with the sextortion video and I’ve been given permission to be in one about the help police can provide.”

“Wonderful. Reading the comments, there were lots of requests from young people for more on scams, ‘fake news’, sexting, and abuse and bullying on social media. I’ll need your input when I research that in more depth. There are also heaps of requests for a post on police help. The awesome4some are all here so you can organize with them about making that one.”

“I thought you were in charge of the channel.”

I laughed, “Only sometimes. Usually, I let them run their own race and it’s a winner.”

Chelsea added, “All I can say is that we are all really proud of Bradley. These guys have been so good with him.”

We were interrupted by Beau telling everyone that the food was ready, which included plant based burgers and other vegetarian options. As usual there was ample food and drink for everyone. The difference being that there were more non-alcoholic drinks than usual, and more checking that underage adolescents were not sneaking alcoholic. After all we did have a police detective at the party, even if he was off duty.

While everyone was eating Lachlan joined me as we behaved as genial hosts ensuring that everyone was having a good time. It was easy to ascertain that they were. Debbie had palled up with Carol and Skye’s mum, Helen. I looked across at Noah and Calvin who had joined another gay couple but were not ignoring the straight eye candy. David and Chelsea and Logan and Ashley were socially comfortable with everybody.

News that we had decided to marry had become common knowledge with our friends and the tradies, so we kept having people come up and congratulate us.

I was watching Jamie, Andre, Jenny and her partner Jasmine start dancing and encouraging others to join in. It wasn’t long before the number of people dancing increased.

When Michael walked up to me, I wasn’t surprised then he asked, “When is the wedding?”

“Soon.”

“Soon isn’t a date. It’s not even a month.”

We both chuckled.

“OK. We haven’t set a date yet.”

“You mean you haven’t organized anything yet.”

“We’ve chosen the rings. They’re being adjusted.”

Michael burst out laughing. “Good start. But there’s a lot more to organize. And remember you have to complete an official intention to marry form and give it to a celebrant at least a month before you intend to have the marriage service. Have you even completed an intention to marry form?”

“Ahh not yet.”

“Sometimes I don’t believe you two. Both intelligent. Both focused and organized in your work. Both deeply in love and wanting to marry and you haven’t done the most basic thing you have to do before getting married.”

“We’ve been busy.”

Michael shook his head in disbelief and chuckled. “And believe me there’s a lot to organize before you do actually marry. We’ve a lot to do to get you married.”     

I laughed. “No pressure then.”

Beau arrived, “What are you two plotting?”

“I’m trying to get Chris serious about organizing their wedding.”

“Mum and Skye are already talking about planning it for you.”

“Oh God no. We want a gay wedding without the ‘straight wedding’ frilly stuff they will want to include. It’s not us. With all respect Beau, I don’t want them and their friends and probably my parents organizing our wedding.”

Michael grinned, “In that case we need to have a gay wedding planning meeting with just us guys. That includes you, Beau.”  

“Hey, I’m not gay, remember.”

“You shower with gay guys. That’s good enough cred.”

Beau looked at me “They know?”

Michael responded, “What? That, you three shower together. Yes, and we’re more than a little envious.”

That was when I saw Beau blush more than at any other time. He looked around, “Sure I’m in. I mean I’ll help. When?” That was when we all laughed.

Eventually the party started to wind down and people started leaving. Couples with children thanked us for having a ‘family party’ while dragging their offspring away from the child and adolescent activities they were enjoying.

Jackson and Emma let us know that they were going out with Tyron and Chloe, probably to the club. I handed Jackson a key to the apartment. Logan agreed for Ollie and Bradley to sleep over with his family.

Cleaning up was completed relatively quickly because we were helped by Lachlan and Carol, Beau and Skye and Michael and Jamie. That done we all chatted while drinking some nice wine and grazing on leftovers.

Lachlan complimented us on having a successful party. “This was different from the parties I’ve run in the past, but I enjoyed it, and so did the guys and their families. Just as I know I can continue to step back and let Beau and Andre manage the business I know I can step back and share the parties with our family.” He looked across at Jamie and Michael. “And you two are part of our family.”

I saw Michael look at Jamie who nodded. “Thanks Lachlan. We feel part of the family. We love these parties and your work teams and their families are awesome. We would love to have one of these parties at our place. We have space and a pool so something in summer would be perfect; like the Christmas or New Year party.”

Lachlan laughed. “I don’t want you lot to take over completely. I still want a party at our place.”

Carol added, “I’m happy to share the parties around different places but they are still family parties and we are all involved.” She then went over and hugged Michael and Jamie. “I agree with Lachlan. You have become family.”

When they all departed, we had the apartment to ourselves. Something that didn’t happen often since Ollie started living with us. We made the most of it and didn’t hold back on the noise.

I didn’t hear Jackson and Emma return to the apartment, but they were very late asking about breakfast.

 

It was obvious that Emma and Chloe had hit it off together and really enjoyed each other’s company, so it was not surprising when they told their boyfriends they were going shopping for clothes while they had their fun making videos.

The awesome4some took over the studio to record some episodes. In the afternoon they videoed David and Bradley talking about what the police can do to help. The “production team” decided that they wanted to present it as a father/son chat, so they took over our living area, so it looked less staged and more a chat at home. The result was excellent, and David was extremely happy to take a copy of the video to show his superintendent.

 

Monday morning was rushed as we prepared Ollie for school and Jackson and Emma packed for the drive back to Melbourne. Ollie thanked Jackson and Emma for visiting and gave each of them a farewell hug before rushing off to catch the school bus with Riley, Cooper and Sophie.  

Mid-morning Andre received an email from a solicitor. In essence the email said the solicitor was acting on behalf of Jeff using information provided by Ruby. The email asserted that Christine and Jeff were married so Jeff was the sole beneficiary of Christine’s estate. The attachment was a copy of a marriage certificate.  

After I read the email Andre said, “If it’s the last thing I ever do, I’m going to stop those bastards getting even one cent of what Ollie is entitled to.” I hugged him in total support.