Laurie Mutersbaugh

My name is Theresa Petoskey, my mom was Laurie Mutersbuagh, I know this is long but I want to be sure everyone understands how this donated money will be used. First of all I'm a disabled vet on a VERY fixed disability income well below the federal poverty level so unexpected expenses are impossible. All of you that know me know I don't ask for help unless I really need it. I believe in standing on my own two feet but current circumstances are such I need help. My mom passed away very suddenly on July 24th leaving my sister and I to have to deal with her final wishes, expenses, and going through her things. Those that have seen my facebook posts know she had a small mountain of genealogy papers, books, and I don't know even what all. My sister isn't interested in any of it so I need to go home to Chicago or Summit, IL anyways where her home was, go through it and sort out what is trash like irrelevant family tree magazines, what was stuff she copied because she thought it might be related when it likely wasn't, and what is our family and I'll want to keep. Then I'll need to bring it all home to PA for safe keeping and continue her legacy of research. I had thought about flying or even greyhound but shipping everything back would be prohibitively expensive. My plan is to rent a car and drive out, spend a few days sorting and organizing then pack everything that's to be kept into the car, while also helping my sister with my mom's affairs in any way I can. While I'm so close of course I'd like to drive out to Geneva, IL and visit my grandpa, and put flowers on my grandma's grave in Batava, Il where she's buried. I'll also be bringing our mom's ashes back to Spring Run, PA to scatter over her parent's graves as that was her wish.

My thinking at this point is that the rental car (402 with taxes) with insurance since I don't have a car of my own with a policy that would cover insurance (about $30 per day so an additional $210 or so), and the $300 deposit required for renting with a debit will come to around $900, Since if it was possible to make the trip without ever stopping it's a 12 hour drive under the best of circumstances. With construction, stops for food, gas, bathroom, and just because my back and legs are screaming for a stretch break it usually takes me about 17-18 hours so I prefer to break it into two days whenever possible. As such I'm budgeting about $300-400 for hotels round trip. Around $200 for gas, and around $50 a day for food at least the days I'd be on the road. I'm thinking overall depending on what hotels I can find that are in a safe area, and are clean, and hopefully no more then $150 a night but... that I'll need around $1500-1700 to make the trip safely. I'm creating a cushion to expect the unexpected you never know what might happen.

My tentative plan was to go out the weekend after Labor day as I was going to fly and flights are expensive during the holiday weekend. However my sister is frazzled and asking if I can come sooner so I'll likely head out as soon as the goal is met if by a miracle that happens, and happens sooner.

My mom's loves were for family and DAR as such any excess if there is any at the end of this like the refund of the $300 debit deposit will be split between helping my sister with our mom's final expenses of the $2,300 for the cremation, and how much she's spending on the urn and all that and making a donation to one of the DAR projects in our mom's memory.