We take life on the local road for granted. The oncoming car will stay in its lane. The driver behind us won’t ride our rear fender. The grazing deer won’t run out on the road . The driver in the weaving car can handle his tire blowout. The bridge will hold and get us across the river.
“I’ll only be gone a few hours” he said. “We’ll review everything later. I know, I know, stop nagging me.”
The bridge held for one more night , but her husband’s heart didn’t. The conversation they needed to have didn’t happen. He had resisted signing the papers for giving her durable power of attorney for health care and financial decisions in case he was incapacitated.
The hospital had hooked him up to life support. His sons were talking with the doctor. Feeling invisible and helpless, his wife sobbed. If he lived, he would remain on life support and she would have no say in the matter. It would drain all of their financial assets, virtually ending her life. If he died, his previous will, still in effect, would benefit children from his first marriage.
Just weeks before, he had finally agreed to revise his will and create an estate plan that reflected their two decades together. The papers from the attorney were on the living room table. That’s what they needed to discuss, to make sure she understood what was in the plan.
Life often hangs on split second decisions. Sometimes those decisions take two decades to make.
Sometimes, it’s too late.
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