No contact parent dying

[Familyguyfan]

Hi all

I'm asking a question on behalf of my dad. He is no contact with his mother. This has been the case for several years. It is fair to say that my grandmother is really not a nice person. She certainly displays many narcissistic tendencies, and has been awful to him for most of his life.

My father has a younger brother. They are not close, no animosity but not close. My grandfather died several years ago, so there is just my dad, his brother, me (grandchild) and another two grandchildren who are the children of my aunt who died many years ago.

My dad is rather worried that if anything happened to his mother, he might not be notified. While they are no contact, he would still want to know. I think it would close the book for him, although he would never wish her ill.

Can anyone tell me if he would be automatically notified (by the hospital or coroner) as the eldest child, or if the responsibility to inform him of his mother's death would fall to his younger brother?

The hospital certainly wouldn't contact him and the coroner probably wouldn't be involved, so yes, he should ask his brother to let him know when she dies.

There is no 'eldest child is next of kin' in the eyes of the law. The hospital will only contact the next of kin as stated when a patient is admitted and usually any others that ask while a person is a patient in hospital.

My DM has just passed away and the hospital staff were more than willing to contact all of us children with any news in the short time none of us were able to be with her. As it was, they called one of us who said we would pass on info to the others, saving them them time.

Your dad will need to ask his brother to inform him of any decline in her health and hope that they get on well enough for him to oblige, especially if there is no-one else likely to pass on info.

my father passed away recently and although he and his brothers were not at all close (i.e years could go by with no contact) i contacted the one whose details I had to let him know. He was genuinely very upset to hear of his brothers passing and sent a card to my Mother , he didn't attend the funeral. The other surviving brother no one has any contact details for so we had to leave it.