The greatest gift my mother ever gave me was an organized file box of all the important papers I would need when she passed to the universe. Her will, her car titles, all her accounts information, insurance policies, all my dad’s death information…everything in one neat organized file box separated into folders. Every year we had a family meeting where she went over everything. She prepaid her funeral. I had very little to do myself. I was so heartbroken in grief that without that file box and instructions, I seriously don’t know how I would have gotten through it.
The second thing my mother did was to downsize. She lived in a senior living apartment, two bedrooms that were neat and organized with the stuff she loved and used. She had the family items listed as to who gets what and told us in advance at the yearly family meeting. She lived her life happy with all the conveniences she wanted.
She had her finances in order. My name was on the bank account, my brother’s was on the car title. Nothing had to be done after passing.
This book talks about the greatest gift you can give your loved ones. Having a house full of crap ain’t it. Anyone who had had to go in and clean out a relatives house after passing, even with a minimum amount of stuff knows the truth. When my grandmother passed it took my mom a solid month working 6 days a week 8-10 hours per day to clean that house. My grandma used to hide important documents. My mother learned from that experience and vowed never to put her kids through that. It took me 2 1/2 days to clean out my mom apartment. It would have went faster if I didn’t have to sit down and sob multiple times.