Don’t Even Consider Dying…Unless You’ve Got a Will
For about the 10th time since I started this site in May, someone ostensibly literate and intelligent has written in, describing himself as “very healthy — in fact healthier than almost anyone I know.” Unfortunately this healthy person has no Will.
Only boundless optimism about a future that seems to include immortality.
The advice-seeker does, however, have an excuse of sorts: his fiancee, much younger than he, finds end-of-life preparations unsettling. And depressing. What should he do? Prepare for the future and risk the pique of his young fiancee? Or appease her, and play dice with the universe?
My advice? Get yourself to a lawyer at once, today if possible. Draw up not only a Will, but also a Living Will, which will detail what medical measures you want (or don’t want) at the end of life. And don’t tell your girlfriend.
(And by the way, since Advance Medical Directives also detail who you want, in the event of incapacitation, to make important medical decisions for you, the currently healthy guy should probably designate someone a lot less squeamish — and smarter – than his fiancee).
All of which is to say that excellent health doesn’t last forever. Nothing does. And no one does.
So start planning now.
