The Subject We All Avoid
November 24, 2013
The other night we joined our next-door neighbors for a glass of wine and to witness the signing of their wills and health proxies. Their lawyer is a jolly man, and the whole scene in their living room was much more pleasant than the stodgy, wood paneled conference room of the law firm where our dour-faced lawyer had us sign similar documents about a year ago.
To me, end-of-life conversations rank right up there with colonoscopy preparation. But we all need to deal with them in the way that works best for us. And since many of us are with our far-flung families for the holidays, this might be a good time to do so (although, discussing the contents of your Grateful Jar, if you have one, might be better suited for your Thanksgiving dinner conversation).
In any event, there were some thought-provoking and helpful articles on this subject in the Your Money section of the November 20th New York Times that are worth a look. Here are the links:
Good advice; this is very important. We are only 60, but after the loss of my mom this year we decided not to put this off any longer. We had "the talk" with our children, set up our trust and health directives. My mom and dad did that many years ago when they found out my dad had terminal cancer. When Dad died it was so much easier for mom to keep going. When Mom died, it was so much less complicated than it could have been. And as ordered as things were, it has STILL been a grueling effort to close her estate. I can't imagine how hard it would have been had Mom and Dad NOT set things up all those years ago.
Posted by: Marilyn | November 24, 2013 at 12:57 PM