Old age is not for sissies.

[Chuck Dye]

What Dr. Seuss (and others) did not say is that it needn't be your old age.

Now is the time to deal with wills, living wills, trusts, end of life care plans, powers of attorney, DNRs (Do Not Resuscitate orders,) and the like.

If you have a relative such as one of mine, now is also the time to establish your defenses.

That is all.  We now return you to our regular program.

[vaskidmark]

Guy in the Saturday morning breakfast group is dealing with wife's uncle who has a recently discovered brain tumor.  No will, no advance directive, and if he comes around after they finish draining some fluid off his brain they have no idea what, if any, changes there might be that would make the writing of such legally questionable.  Going from occassional visits with Uncle Moe to gathering the distant relatives (offspring of cousins to Uncle Moe) to let them know they can either accept being nominated as his conservator or allow the guy's accountant to take on the job.

Even oulde phart curmudgeons like me with no relatives know enough to have that advance directive, living will, and last testament done and on file with someone who will 1) be notified I am either in the hurtspital or dead and 2) gives enough of a crap to make sure folks are following my pre-stated wishes.  (I'm like a lot of doctors - scared stiff of what hospitals might do to me to avoid being sued for not doing "everything possible".)

stay safe.

[Chuck Dye]

Even oulde phart curmudgeons like me with no relatives know enough...

If you conduct a poll you will find a large gap between knowing and doing.  Preppers prepare "just in case."  TEOTWAWKI and SHTF are possibilities, death, we know, will occur in our lifetime.

[Hawkmoon]

...death, we know, will occur in our lifetime.

Semantically, that's impossible. But I understand your meaning.

[Scout26]

Don't wait until you're "old".   Death can sneak up at any time.  Get your paperwork in order.  That way you don't put your family through hell, if they are not already going through it because of your generally un-timely demise.

Wills, trusts and and advance directives (along with funeral plans/wishes), make sure that there's no guessing as to what your wishes were....

[grampster]

Everyone needs a will, a trust and POA for health care and general POA.

[Chuck Dye]

Semantically, that's impossible.

Time to hire a better semanticist.  I took care crafting that sentence to include deaths other than our own.

If you wish to argue that our own death is not an event occurring in our own lifetime, show your work.  If my death is not the end point of my personal timeline and so not a part of that timeline, what's left, an asymptotic approach?

[Jamie B]

I have a PDF of a Living Will and Medical Power of Attorney for OH.

I received it from a lawyer friend.

PM me, and I can email it to any OH members.

[RoadKingLarry]

Everyone needs a will, a trust and POA for health care and general POA.

We have all that set up and in a place where the kids will find it but we tell them that in order to get even with them we will leave everything in a mess for them to clean up.