Another Grueling Task

Yesterday, Pat and I did something that we’ve been meaning to do for the past 5 years - create our wills, our family trust and our advance health care directives. You would think that I would have been more on top of this, particularly since I spent the last 10 months fighting a deadly disease. But, while this task was on my “To Do” list, we never seemed to make the time to get it done.

I don’t have much of an excuse for the previous 4 ½ years – except that there seemed to be so many immediate issues that overtook us, and the likelihood of death at our age seemed remote. Then, over the past 10 months, when death became more of an imminent possibility, rather than rush to finish our wills, I avoided the task – perhaps because the possibility that it would be used much sooner was too overwhelming to me.

Creating these documents was not an simple task. Determining who will raise our children, who will decide whether to take us off of life support, how we wish for our bodies to be utilized after death, who will execute our will and trust, who will make decisions for us if we are incapacitated – these are not easy decisions.

Now, a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. Above all else, over the past 10 months, I’ve learned that we can’t take our health for granted. Life can change in an instant. I feel confident that when my time comes, be it within the next few years or many decades from now, I have ensured that my daughters will be ok.

I have used this blog before to urge everyone to get a colonoscopy and donate funds to cancer research and now I am going to use it to encourage action once again. If you haven’t done so already, I strongly urge you to create these critical documents for yourself and your family. It’s just too important to wait.