Mature Life Features

. . . with your cell phone, computer, laptop or tablet?

No need to call,

just show up at noon in the lobby

and let the Fourcher Tech lads solve it for you.

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Planning Your Future

Includes Your Funeral

A neighbor’s husband took care of her, both emotionally and economically, until his death early last year. More than six months later, even with the assistance of her family attorney, she is still looking for documents vital to tying up all the loose ends in the estate.

While she’s alone in her predicament, she’s not alone in the number of men and women left stumbling in the dark after a spouse’s death. It seems that, along with prostate cancer, gaffes at work, and spousal-abuse, nobody wants to talk about their death. But everyone faces it. So a bit of planning is in order.

Several years ago, a friend who was the police chief in a city far away, was diagnosed with raging cancer in his early 40s. He was given weeks — not months — to live. He called all his friends and colleagues to a night at a local club and hosted a farewell party. At the beginning of the evening, he told everyone of his situation, told them all to eat and drink up and that he didn’t want to see them anymore because he wanted them to remember him as he was that night.

You don’t have to do the same thing. You can acquire a life-insurance policy payable on your death to be used to pay for the casket and caterer when you die. You can pare the price by opting for less-expensive cremation rather than pay for an elaborate and costly sealed box to house your remains underground.

You can work out your own funeral plans simply and economically. First ask yourself if you want an elaborate service and several-day visitation or do you prefer a simple gathering of relatives and friends. Do you want to be buried in a casket or is cremation your preference.

What does your family want? Discuss it with them.

Just as sure as you were born, with which you had nothing to do, you’re going to die, and you can so do something about those arrangements.