Advice on dealing with the affairs of remote relative

[CMOTDibbler]

My great aunt has died - she was 94, and was out of dads life for a good 50/55 years, and I never knew about her till 8 years ago when she just rang dad out of the blue!
I took dad to see her a few times and they were in phone contact reasonably regularly, but def not close - she was a very, very private lady.

Dad is her only relative left (well, that we know of) and her executor. But although she told him all the details were in a certain place in the house, its a 4 hour journey for me to get dad and go down (hes far too frail to do it himself and we'd have to get a carer for mum), and neither of us have keys.

We think she may have a prepaid funeral thing - is there any way to find out who with?

Any advice on sorting things from a distance? Theres a house to be sold, but I think thats the least of the problems tbh

I am very sorry to hear your news. From what you have said earlier your aunt may live near my mother. In which case I have a pretty full address book of house clearance people, probate lawyers, estate agents etc.

I will PM. As my mum is two hours or so away and now settled, I am often looking for excuses to go down. I feel I ought to maintain a regular programme of visits, but as my mother is likely to forget within an hour that I have been, I quite like to pick up additional reasons to go down.