What if . . . ??

(Warning: Shameless promotion ahead)

If you died today, would your family know what your wishes are? Would they know how you feel about burial vs. cremation? Would they know if you want to be embalmed? Would they think you want them to spend thousands of dollars on a top-of-the-line casket, or would they assume you’d rather the money be put to a different use? Would they know what your feelings are about organ donation or, if you were incapacitated, would they know how you feel about being kept alive on a respirator indefinitely?

Or would they be left to guess – and perhaps even fight – in the courts for years the way Terri Schaivo’s family did?

What about important documents? Does your family know where your safety deposit boxes or safes are? Do they know where to find your life insurance policies? Do they even have your social security number? Can they find the title to your car or your mortgage policy number or the key to the vacation home in the mountains? If you have pets or livestock, could they find the relevant vet and ownership records?

Would they know what you wanted done with your wedding band? Your great-grandmother’s china? The special Christmas ornaments you and your spouse have picked up on every single vacation together since you got married? Your baseball card collection or the tea towels you sewed with your mother when you were 10?

Would it bother you if any of the above items were given away to charity? Possessions don’t need to be valuable to be important to us.

And now turn it around. If someone in your close family died, would YOU know what he/she wants or where to find the critical pieces that help complete and close out that person’s life? And would you really want to be searching for them when you’re riddled with grief?

These are critical questions that few of us want to give thought to. No one really relishes the idea of his/her own death, but if you have any type of family—a parent, a spouse, a sibling, a grandparent—who would be left behind after your death, you need to answer these questions in an organized, easy-to-find way.

My husband Mark has put together a guide that pulls everything together in one cover. It’s called “The It’s All Right Here Life and Affairs Organizer.”



The idea for the organizer originated after his father died in 2003 leaving behind mountains of papers with no guidance on what was important and what wasn’t. He and is siblings spent many hours pouring through closets, rooms, files, boxes and shelves trying to organize, sort, code and distribute. It would have been a difficult task under the best of circumstances, but doing it while grief-stricken made it that much worse.

Had my father-in-law had access to a book like the one Mark’s written, his children would have been spared many difficult moments.

Because you are readers of this blog and I appreciate you stopping by now and then to say hello, we’re offering the book to you at a special discounted price of $29.99, a 40% discount off the $49.99 cover price. Email me (kimberly615@yahoo.com) for an order form. Click here to learn more about the book or take a peek inside.

I swear, even if he weren't my husband, I'd definitely buy this book. If it saves my family members even a little grief or anguish, it's well worth the price.