Make a "Goodbye Plan" & Show Your Love
It’s one of the rare times people will be really grateful to you for delineating instructions for a major event that you won’t be attending — or only attending in spirit.
I’m talking about planning your own Goodbye: your burial (or not), memorial and legacy, and making many other key decisions surrounding your inevitable death.
Because however well-intentioned, the idea that it’d be better not to impose your wishes, to just leave everything for others to figure out while mourning, is false. Nobody wants to guess while grieving.
Without a roadmap, loved ones likely will have to scramble and make a numbing number of decisions for you, when fragile emotions may cloud financial judgement, the potential for family conflict is high, and the stress level makes a sad situation worse.
Advance planning alleviates a burden from your passing, and can lead to meaningful conversations about what’s important in life as well as death. It frees loved ones to be fully present with you in your final moments instead of dealing with logistics and prices, and gives them space to indulge their sorrow.
Prepare further by getting your affairs in order and documented, along with your key account information and passwords. And since death etiquette is real, pare down your possessions so you don’t leave a hot mess to be cleaned up after you.
Making a Goodbye Plan isn’t morbid or woo-woo. It’s sensible, an act of loving kindness, and a gift to those who will try to carry out your wishes.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
