Cremation and Estate Settling for Kimberly Olson

My name is Ashley Anderson, and yesterday on January 7th we received news that my mother, Kimberly Olson passed away unexpectedly.

Kim was a 66 year old spitfire - full of life and energy, and loved deeply by all that knew her. She had many friends in the community and had a knack for making new ones wherever she went. Her loss has come suddenly and very painfully.

Kim was born in Harlowton, Montana but had lived the past few decades in Miles City. She is directly survived by my self and my young son, my older brother Levi Peppenger, her sisters Kelly and Marilyn, and her sisters' children and grandchildren.

There are so many more things to say, and updates will follow as the shock settles, but at the moment things need to be precise and handled quickly. The cost is going to be very hard to cover at such a short notice and anything that anyone might want to contribute to closing her estate will be greatly appreciated.

We honestly don't how we're going to do this, as I sit here typing with a thousand thoughts reeling in my brain, but we have to make it work.

The responsibility of tying up her affairs is mine and for full disclosure I've compiled a list of costs below that are going to need to be covered. These costs aren't all exact, but these are the averages.

Things are almost guaranteed subject to change, but ideally the plan is this:

My husband, our young child and myself to fly from our home in Portland, OR to Billings, MT as soon as possible.

From there we'll rent a vehicle - likely something with the capacity for landfill runs and to haul large furniture and boxes.

Together we'll sort through, pack and organize her things and place chosen items in a rented storage unit until the weather is nice enough (assuming 5 months, maybe June?) to return to Montana with a U-Haul and bring the items back to Oregon with us.

There will be a lot to donate - which we'll be offering to St. Vincent de Paul - as well as I'd like to invite anyone close to her to reach out to me on Facebook and we can possibly coordinate you taking a memento.

After organizing and placing all of her things, our focus will turn to visiting folks she loved, and then we'll drive back to Billings and take our return flight to Oregon.

Again, things are sure to arise and change but this is the rough plan.

I don't know how much time this is going to take to accomplish all of the logistical things, but I'm going to throw out a ballpark estimate and call it 9 days. Of course grieving knows no time period and legal aspects are going to take much longer, but the very absolute, concrete things that need to be dealt with immediately need to be on a manageably set timeline. But there also needs to be time to rest between work and catch our "emotional breath".

All of the costs on the above list reflect 9 days.

We'd like to arrange a memorial service but we'll need to plan that for the near future. Most likely during the warmer months, probably when we return to bring my mother's belongings to our home in Oregon.

Updates to come.

Thank you for reading and thank you so, so much if you're able to donate or even simply share.

We love you mom.