

This is very difficult. My mom was very straightforward with this and wanted everything worked out, a breeze, she took the initiative and is organizing. My wife’s parents are in the mode of “I’ll worry about this when I’m dead”. We’ve dropped some hints, especially since they had a medical emergency recently. But there is little more to do than offer help, information and ask what they want. If they’re not open to it, you’re just damaging the relationship and I’m not sure it’s worth it. There is no easy “win-win” scenario here.

Their only response so far has been “I’ll die in the harness”. That’s about it. Company wise everything is settled legally. But there’s nothing medically as far as I/we know. That’s exactly the kind of stuff my mom actually has worked out precisely, I have a copy of all those documents as well. That’s why we really want to have that conversation. But they are just not having any of it (yet). There’s hoping this changes. When a family member or friend passes away we try to prompt them to think about it, so far, nope :-(…