Final Plans.

When do you start talking about final plans? You know the end is inevitable, and statistically for most people even predictable. So, why is it so hard to make final plans?

Could it be that we are really not good at these things?
Could it be that we so fear our own ending that even contemplating it abstractly causes anxiety and fear?
Could it be that we are not programmed to think about sad endings?

I wonder how many people have their final plans all wrapped up and in a safe place.
We, hubby and I, have gone as far as writing a will and choosing/paying for a cemetery plot. We have medical directives with our doctors and we carry the same with us to and from hospitals. We spoke to our children about all this; but they, as most young people, didn't really want to hear anything.
How many other people our age have gone this far? 

A will? Why do I need a will?

Because you could slip and fall.
Because you could have a car accident, or...
We just don't know when our time will come.

Having a set of final instructions is the same as having a list of tasks for your neighbor to check on when you leave her in charge of your property as you gallop around another hemisphere.  She needs a list of do's, and a set of emergency numbers in case she needs permission to do more than you or she anticipated.

The first thing you need to write down are your final instructions on how you want to die.
Ugh?
Yes. When you are lying there in a coma, unable to communicate, how do you want to guide the conversation?  Do you want to be kept alive until....
Morbid?
Unthinkable?
Too scary?
Yeah. Way too scary for today.
It's sunny outside. I'll do this tomorrow....Bye.....

If you use Quicken Financial System, find the Willmaker application, and voila', you are taking your first step. 
That wasn't hard! 

To be, or not to be....

A couple of days ago, a famous conductor and his ballerina wife from England, a devoted couple, decided to take their lives. One was ill; the other was not. Together, they traveled to a clinic in Switzerland where they could receive assistance for their decision.

Here in Oregon, just a few months ago, we voted for a law that allows people, at the end of their lives, to make decisions about dying. It passed with a good majority.

This state will also fine you stiffly if you hit an animal on the highway and drive off. It will fine you heavily if you step on grassland that protects snowy plovers. It will fire you from public office if you hunt or fish without a license, in the wrong place, at the wrong time. It has more protection for wild life than most other states.

When life is coming to an end, what is there to do? I want to make that decision if I'm conscious. If I'm not, I want to leave directives so my family doesn't have to fight over what is the best thing to do. At a point when my life is not worth living, I want to give my goodbyes to the world and go peacefully into that dark night.