Why was this guidebook written?
When the phone rings, and you see a certain name on caller I.D., does your heart skip a beat? Will this be a casual call, or will it be the one that you have been dreading? On a Sunday night in 2018, my family got one of those calls, and it changed our lives. My father had suffered a heart attack. We dropped everything and prepared to make the drive to our hometown to see how he was. Less than 30 minutes later, we got another call. This one was to inform us that he hadn’t survived.
We were devastated and our family had more questions than we could have imagined. How would we tie up the loose ends from our father’s life? If he has a will, where is it? Does he have life insurance? We’ll, we’re still working on some of them. If there had been an all-inclusive guidebook to walk us through funerals, wills, estates… It would have been a lot easier to finalize everything that he left.
It took three years to complete “Before I Depart.” There was much that my sister and I initially wrote, and later on rejected. And there was much that we never thought of – like how a pandemic would change things. We also thought it would be prudent to include what a person would want loved ones to know, or do, after their death. I do believe that we can and will help people, so that they won’t have to go through what we did.
The best compliment that I could have ever asked for came through an old Army buddy, I’ll call Joe. I sent him a copy of “Before I Depart” and he had good things to say. Joe is not one to hold back on criticism, which makes him an even better friend. Joe gave our book to a friend who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. One day while visiting, Joe walked into the kitchen where the wife was sitting, at the table, crying. Joe asked if she was okay. She held up the book that he had given her and said, “This is a Godsend.” I don’t believe that a better compliment could be stated.
We sincerely hope that our book helps survivors after the death of family or friend. We also hope that persons use this tool to document their wishes and information before they depart. After all, removing stressful decisions for family and friends, while they are grieving, is part of a lasting legacy.
Dave