Asking Eric: Cremated remains aren’t like in the movies

Dear Eric: I worked in a mortuary/cemetery and was a licensed funeral director.

Your answer to “Resting Place”, who considered splitting her husband’s deceased wife’s remains among four urns for the children is perfect, emotionally. But, please let that family know they shouldn’t try to split the remains themselves. Cremated remains aren’t like in the movies and odds are if the family tries to split them themselves, they will end up with mom’s ashes all over the table/ground/and or themselves with no way to, respectfully, get them back where they belong. (I’ve heard lots and lots of stories.) If they take the urn to a licensed mortuary or crematory, a professional can handle it for them and spare them that trauma.

Asking Eric: Family member wants full support for bad decisions

Dear Eric: My cousin (more like a sister) has been making some extremely rash and concerning choices over the last year. After she had her second baby, she left her husband and started seeing a series of borderline-abusive men. She is now in the process of signing over full custody of her children to her ex-husband and is impulsively buying a house out of state.

Asking Eric: Husband always corrects wife, even when she’s right

Dear Eric: Often when I make a comment or tell a story my husband corrects me. If I try and defend what I’ve said, he just implies that I’m wrong and he’s right. It can be embarrassing when we are out socially. Most of the time I let it slide. Because if I try to point out that I’m correct and he’s wrong, he just carries on as if he’s right. At home, I’ll find evidence that proves that I was right. He just goes “Oh.” I explain to him that I am embarrassed by him correcting me in front of others. He doesn’t seem to care. What should I do?

Asking Eric: Brother-in-law is after my inheritance

Dear Eric: My brother passed in 2023. He was not married and had no children. He left an estate of $1.5 million. My two sisters and I split his estate equally and have finally closed the estate. From the start, my older sister’s husband protested that we should not split the estate equally. He says we should have split it to “level the retirement playing field.” In other words, I should have declined my inheritance to give my sisters a retirement financially equivalent to what my husband and I have.