What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Massachusetts. This one will probably go down in the books. I married in 1975, divorced in 1991. Two children of the marriage, both adults now. Ex-husband wasn't really much of a "dad" to either child during marriage or after divorce. In 2015 (Father's Day) they found out their dad had cancer. This year (early June) we now know he will not survive (brain cancer). He has one sister in Indiana, who I've been communicating with. She was the one who asked me to check with the nursing home since she hadn't heard from him in a month at least. I did that and have spoken to the case administrator there a couple times. We have actually been helpful to each other since she had info I didn't have and vice-versa. He married again after our divorce, but it didn't last (this much we knew). They never divorced, however (we just found this out from the nursing home case administrator), but his second wife has no clue where he is or what's going on as they have not communicated with each other in nearly 10 years. No Power of Attorney issued and no Will either - only a Health Care Proxy which is held by his best friend since December. I'm sure there is no life insurance either - but wouldn't that be taken by the nursing home if he did have one? He lost his apartment due to non-payment as he's been in this nursing home/rehab since Nov. 2015. The landlord, as well as his best friend, both urged us to get any personal things of sentimental value from the apartment before it got cleaned out. We've done that and the kids have some things of personal value. All else got taken and put into storage. We have no intention of paying to get anything else out of storage, as all the kids wanted was pictures and things they remembered from their childhood (which wasn't much, unfortunately). We have visited him in the nursing home and he introduces me as his "wife" to people who work there. I usually correct them that I am an ex. He is lucid most of the time, but other times he makes no sense. We do not expect he will survive more than another month or so. The case administrator recently told me they will need to assign a conservator to oversee his financial affairs. Since (1) he has no power of attorney; and (2) he is still legally married to his second wife; if they find her (I have no clue where she lives but it's in Massachusetts), am I correct to assume she will be responsible to take care of his remains? None of us have the money to bury him (myself, or our children). What are the laws in Massachusetts regarding a situation like this? I've checked on Google and don't come up with much. I don't want to see the guy's remains just tossed aside, but at the same time we have no money to help. I'm not sure his second wife does either. They say everyone has a skeleton in their closet...this guy has a graveyard's worth of them.
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