I drove over to Greg place today to finalise the paperwork for dad. We signed the contracts for the retirement village and checked that the bills and statements we have received have already been paid.

I showed Greg the letter that I'd received from the Department of Veteran's Affairs, which confirms that mum is considered a concessionary aged care resident. This means that we effectively avoided paying the bond, through our reduction of mum and dad's assets. The bond we are not paying is $350,000. It is good to know this. It means that we have more chance of keeping mum and dad's financial position stable, instead of rapidly eroding. Were it to erode, we might at some stage be faced with moving them into levels of care we didn't feel were right. We may still have to do that, it depends on how long they live, how well they bear up, and how much income we can derive from the house.

Dad's accommodation has turned out to be considerably more expensive than we thought it would be. Our first attempt at financial planning left mum and dad with a $20,000 p.a. positive cash flow. This has now gone and we are unsure whether the cash flow will be positive or negative. It all hinges on how much rent we can expect from the house now.

After we did the paperwork we reminisced a little about dad. I asked Greg if dad had ever given him any advice about women. The answer was 'none'. Exactly the same as in my case. We remembered that dad was never moody, at least not until the last year or eighteen months, and that he had often been prepared to fool around. He regularly embarrassed mum on dance floors, because he would dance properly with her for a couple of songs, and then start cutting loose, with high kicks and spins and flapping elbows. More than once she stormed off the dance floor, leaving him happily gyrating on his own. He was fond of the Monty Python Ministry of Silly Walks too, and once nearly caused a riot by playing with a rubber snake. He is also reputed to have dived into a swimming pool in formal dress, at the age of 50, though we never saw this first hand.

All just memories now.