For the Betterment of Sarah Williams - Chapter Seven
Sarah sat in the lawyer’s office. It took her several more weeks of going back and forth before she decided. A year had gone by and there was no sign of him. In this day and age, he would have to be stuck in a remote corner of the world for nobody to have found him by now. The only logical conclusion is that he is dead. So Sarah must now make his death official. The lawyer mentioned that a person can be declared legally dead if they have been missing for 7 years. Since her husband had only been missing for 1 year. She would need to file a petition and then convince a judge that her husband is actually dead.
To accomplish this Sarah would have to gather some information. First she would have to get statements from witnesses. The lawyer said that should be easy since the police should have taken statements from all the witnesses. Next Sarah would need to get the Police report on her husband’s disappearance and finally she would need to perform what is called a diligent search for the missing person. This would include contacting the police, which Sarah did right after the disappearance and advertising in newspapers and periodicals. It may also include hiring a private investigator. The lawyer informed Sarah he would take care of getting the police report and filling out the petition but that Sarah would need to decide on the advertising and whether she should hire a private investigator or not.
Sarah spent another few weeks thinking the matter over. While she was thinking, she was still attending the study groups for her classes. Her grades weren’t spectacular but she was passing and that was something. She was participating more in the group discussions and by this time felt pretty comfortable about the rest of the group. The young man who had first invited her, politely kept his distance. Sarah was sure by now that he was interested in her, but since she still wore her wedding ring thought that she was off limits.
Sarah wasn’t sure what to do about the advertising. When she attended the meeting she had regularly with the older woman, the older woman said that hiring a private investigator would cost too much money and that she could probably make her case without going to all that trouble. Putting small advertisements in papers would probably be the best thing to do. When Sarah asked the older woman what she did, she said that she allowed the seven years to pass and then had her husband declared dead. Sarah didn’t want to wait that long. She decided that she would put an advertisement in some national papers and then hope for the best.
The hearing to determine whether her husband would be declared legally dead or not was in 6 weeks. As the date approached Sarah got very nervous. It was like closing the door to an entire lifetime. All of the friends that she had made since the whole ordeal started agreed to come with her. The older woman assured her she was not alone and that it would be a huge relief to have the question settled. The lawyer was worried that Sarah had not done enough to find her husband and that the judge may not grant the decree. The night before the hearing Sarah got a phone call. It was from someone who worked in a rehabilitation facility in another part of the state. The person said that they think they found her husband. He had arrived that the facility shortly after the date of her husband’s disappearance a fit his general description. The person in question had not been identified and nobody knew who he was. Sarah dropped the phone. She became as white as a ghost and fainted.