Message to the children when sending them our wills

20 November 2020

Dear children,

This has nothing to do with the brush I’m having with Covid right now (still no word yet from Brother Jones, though he feels the longer it takes to get test results the better the indication that he’s negative because testing labs notify the positives first so they can immediately initiate contract tracing efforts).

But a couple of months ago Mother and I signed up with an MLM called Legal Shield to get access to an attorney to draft our wills. Those wills are now complete and attached. (We’ve cancelled our Legal Shield membership.)

We just wanted you to have a copy of them for safekeeping, but we have the originals as does the attorney, Kivel and Howard LLP in downtown Portland.

The attorneys simply use a template and fill in our names and your names. There’s not much to the wills, but hopefully it will expedite the processing of assets (home, cars, furniture that no one will want, etc.) if something should happen to the two of us together.

Earlier we drafted wills back in the early 1990s when all of you were still at home. So these wills should replace those wills when now, instead of amazing children, our most prized possession is a can of Reliv in the cupboard or our 2008 Honda with 200K miles in the garage :)

We hope these wills give you some comfort or assurance that our post-death desires are now formalized. BTW…Apparently there is no formal or court-recognized document for us to establish a living will, i.e. if you’re having to make a life-and-death decision for both of us. But please know that neither Mother or I want our lives to be prolonged if we are on some type of life-sustaining device in the hospital. We are completing a form and will keep that on file.

I can’t believe we’re old enough to be talking about this, but such is life or mortality, right? Thankfully, the Lord wants us to come home—His home.

We love you and cherish each of you…you make us very happy and thankful for Thanksgiving that you and your wonderful families will always be around OUR table. 

Dad & Mom