Preparing for the Death of a Loved One
Get it together.
Anyone who’s had to leap into action following a death in the family—only to learn that the deceased’s affairs were decidedly out of order—will warn against it. After all, who can process grief and honor a loved one’s memory while inundated with administrivia? We reflexively avoid these conversations with our peeps (we, too, are guilty of the “Please–you’re not going anywhere” defense) because we don’t want to confront their death—or our own, for that matter. But our job is to down a few grown-up pills and understand that advance planning is a gift. We’ve rounded up some resources to help us stare down and take on this unpleasant task.
The OG kick in the pants.
After her husband was killed in an accident, making her a single mother in an instant, Chanel Reynolds was compelled to pay it forward. She shares her learnings with her book (and subsequent business) What Matters Most: The Get Your Shit Together Guide to Wills, Money, Insurance, and Life’s ‘What-ifs’. We recommend the whole book, but her checklists give you a great place to start.
Life kit to the rescue.
NPR’s Life Kit is usually the number-one stop on our getting smarter tour, no matter the topic. This episode (and corresponding article) is a great place to start when it comes to tough convos. It also mentions another notable resource: Death over Dinner, a platform that invites you to gather your loved ones and have those deep discussions that are better shared while breaking bread.
Take a picture, it lasts longer.
One of us has spent time photographing various possessions at her mother’s house and storing them in their own Evernote notebook. It allowed us to catalog those belongings with some worth—sentimental or otherwise—as well as inventory photographs (and the details of who is in them). Now Mom can rest easy knowing family heirlooms won’t be hastily thrown out.
Pass it on.
Since so much of our lives and business is conducted online, it would make sense that having passwords all in a cloud based password keeper such as Last Pass would relieve a lot of stress. Just make sure that your nearest and dearest have the master password and security prompts in order to get in. If you want to keep it old school, make sure your analog password keeper is in a known place.
