It’s the scariest of times… why you should have a will

It’s just a hop, skip, and jump from Halloween on Oct. 31st to November – Make a Will Month. This headline of the inimitable Margaret Atwood gave me the leap I needed for the first of 30 related posts. Each day will provide a nudge, a tip, a task, or an entreaty.
 
We all will leave a legacy and it’s up to each of us to decide what that will be. Margaret’s legacy includes 18 novels, 18 poetry volumes, 11 non-fiction books, 9 works of short fiction, and 2 graphic novels. She’s got two Booker Prizes, The Arthur C. Clarke Award, The Governor General's Award, The Prince of Asturias Award for Literature, and (particularly appropriate) The Franz Kafka Prize. She invented the LongPen among other things. She founded the Griffin Poetry Prize, co-founded the Writers' Trust of Canada, was the first contributor to the Future Library Project, and took on two heavyweights.
 
She’s the caped defender of truth, justice, and the Canadian way.
 
From interviews with Margaret Atwood, I’d guess she’d pooh-poohingly make light of her own death and legacy, though these topics are interwoven in many of her works. But I presumptuously believe she has a will to be read at her death and plans for what to do with her estate. I’ll go out on a limb and say she’s had great pleasure in naming beneficiaries and causes, and in rewriting her will with bon mots and barbs a-plenty (get her latest – Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts on sale November 4).
 
TODAY’S NUDGE, which has a Hallowe’en-horror feel:
On January 15, 2022, a person died of COVID-19 complications. Instead of being buried soon after as he wanted beside his father in a family-owned plot, and despite repeated directions and a court order directing that he be buried there, the deceased’s family and Bereavement Authority of Ontario (BAO) remained in a fierce legal battle with the cemetery's owner, September 21 Inc. There’d been an administrative problem in 2019, apparently involving the church where the cemetery was located, but the deceased’s family had a valid deed of sale from the previous owner. The deceased was finally buried on October 1, 2022 – 9.5 months after his death.  Not content with that, September 21 Inc. continued a counter court case heard, which it lost on May 5, 2023 (the deceased’s family was awarded costs but unlikely sufficient for the hell they’d been put through).
 
TODAY’S TIP:  A will is just one part of a package of paperwork people need as much for those they leave behind as for themselves.
 
TODAY’S TASKS: 

1. Check if you have the following (the first three are vital; not everyone will have or need the latter two): Last will and testament; Power of Attorney (PoA) for Property; PoA for Health Care; pre-arranged funeral contract; cemetery/crematorium paperwork
2. Check you know where all of them are, who can access each and how, and when each was last updated.
3. For anything absent or obsolete, put a weekly update prompt in your calendar until it’s current.

---