Where There’s A Will There’s Less Stress

I’ve decided to update my Last Will and Testament (really easy via lawdepot.com).  I have no plans of going anywhere. I suspect I will live to be very old because only the really sweet people die young and I’m a big jagged.

Jagged = long life.

A former colleague of mine died earlier this week at the age of 57. He had a massive stroke. He was kind, hard-working, and as I posted on Facebook, if you asked me to name five memorable people who weren’t in the photo department with me at The Post, he would have been one of them for sure. He was always so friendly to me and quick to smile. I cried heartily when I heard the news. Such a sweet human being gone.

I do not believe I am invincible. I shudder at the thought of my parents dealing with me dying, but still, I am a realist.

I also (and you may be surprised to hear this) don’t like to hassle people and do like to be helpful.

My plan was to print it out and put it in my nightstand. Then it occurred to me – what if I die in a fire that demolishes my house? So, it will go into my Google Drive as well and my IT knowledgable brother can figure out how to retrieve it (are you taking notes?)*

Writing who gets what is of course a good way to deal with bigger things like my house (just sell it, Mom and Dad), and my car, and the investments I don’t know much about aside from the fact that they are sitting out there somewhere doing something.

But as I wander through my house, I think about how it might feel to enter the home that I loved so much and stress about what to do with all of the smaller things sitting around. Artwork and photos hanging on the walls, all the elephant figurines. My loved ones may feel overwhelmed at the thought of deciding who should get what little item as a memento.

Trapped wondering WWCW? What Would Cydney Want?

Me simply saying “Listen guys, when I die, just wander through my house and take what you want, and whatever you don’t want you can let others wander through and take. It’ll be great! It’ll be like my gift to you!”

It won’t be great, because people who know me will invariably wonder if I would have wanted that person to have that item they just took. And if that person brought the item to the Decision Makers to say “Can I have this?”, the Decision Makers are stuck deciding. Wondering WWCW?

That’s not a gift. That’s a burden.

So, my Will includes a list of who gets what of some of the “little” things too. It gives me some solace knowing that I am taking stress from others by simply saying – you don’t have to decide who gets that framed, signed Eisenstadt because I’m just going to tell you – it goes to So And So. So just give it to them.

Done and done. No stress. No guilt. It’s WCWW.

I admit though, I have considered a few jokes. For example, I considered leaving a specific friend any jar of popcorn that sits on my stove shelf because she loves when I make popcorn. Envisioning a bottle of Orville Reddenbacher’s sitting tucked within her books on a shelf for all of eternity amuses me.  But also perhaps that might traumatize people so, best not.

Also I still might do it ’cause it’s funny.

*Also, me typing “are you taking notes?” is not foreshadowing. It’s just “funny writing”