Confronting the End: Why I Am Writing an Instructional Guide For My Loved Ones to Follow When I Die

The business of dying is about far more than wills and estate plans.

Photo by Alexander Grey, Unsplash

Introduction

I’m 60. There are days I’m surprised I made it this long.

In the shadow of my wife’s recent passing, life for me has been punctuated as day-to-day but in truth it’s always been day-to-day.

When she was alive, I was relatively insouciant over matters of mortality. Though oft-discussed, as I had stated in a previous article for Medium, we did not prepare for that inevitable outcome.

My Wife Died Unexpectedly and We Were Not Prepared: Are You Ready for the Business of Dying?

In fact, it would be fair to say I was carefree in that regard until confronted by a bludgeoning reality I could never have imagined: My wife’s fatal stroke at 66 years old.

As excerpted from “My Wife Died Unexpectedly and We Were Not Prepared: Are You Ready for the Business of Dying?”: