I had just finished a loan signing this morning and was pulling into my garage when I get a call from a gentleman sitting in the Denver airport waiting to board a plane to Minnesota that his father here in Minnesota needs a deed of transfer upon death affidavit signed and, according to the attorney who drew up the paperwork, it should be signed quickly as this gentleman is nearing death and they are not sure how many days he has left.
I quickly go through my list of questions while I am pulling my car back out of the garage to head over to the nursing home where everyone is waiting for me so I can perform this notarization. I ask about proper identification, I verify that he understands what he is signing and signing of his own free will, and I explain what the cost breakdown is. I am assured that yes everything is good to go and could I please go now as they are waiting for a notary to come. I explain to the son that I will go but I cannot promise that I can notarize anything until I look at the identification presented to me and determine if his father is aware of what he is signing and signing of his own free will. He assures me everything will be fine.
Ten minutes later I arrive at the nursing home and I inform the young man at the desk that I am here to see the Smith-Jones-Johnson family. He comes around to the front of the desk and says that he will take me right in to see them. As we are walking down the hall, I say to the young man that I am the notary that has been called upon to notarize some documents for Mr. Smith-Jones-Johnson. The young man stops and says to me that Mr. Smith-Jones-Johnson passed away ten minutes ago. I realize now that the reason he was so quick to escort me down the hall is because he thought I had just gotten the call that this man had died and I was quite possibly a family member or friend of the family . . . not a total stranger who was there to notarize documents for a man who had just passed.
Needless to say, I thanked the young man and told him that there was no reason to escort me any further and that I would see myself out. I told him I was sorry for their loss and that he didn't even have to mention to them that I had been there.
We get a lot of general notary work calls, and the end of life notarization requests are never fun, but I have never had a situation like this before. I am so thankful that I wasn't in the room when all of this happened. Has anyone else had any similar situations they would like to share with the group?
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