Why document everything for your family?
Life often doesn't go as planned. We ignore the fact that energy and time are finite, and think that there is no rush to do everything we want to do. But then life happens, reality hits and we are caught off guard.
It happened to me.
My husband Tim and I had been married for 28 years. Many of those years had been filled with struggle and hardship, but we came through together, stronger and better for the experience. Life was now looking good. With both of our daughters married and our son in college, we were just settling into the empty nest, excited about the future, and looking forward to realizing many of our life long dreams.
Have you ever noticed how there are certain times in your life that are just engraved in your mind? You can remember every detail of the moment when a life-changing event occurred…the exact day of the week, the time of day, the weather conditions, even how things felt and smelled. It is a “forever moment” locked into your memory.
A moment like that - locked into my memory forever - happened on a Saturday in April 2001. Little did I know that what we had planned as an uneventful day of chores around our property would be interrupted in a life-changing way when Tim died of a sudden heart attack, leaving me a widow at age 47..
Unprepared for the Future
One moment he said he didn’t feel well, and the next moment, he was gone! He was only 48 years old. Those next days are engraved in my mind. I was in major shock, and crushed with grief. But I was pelted from seemingly every angle with decisions to make and questions to answer. Most of them were things I had never thought about or talked over with Tim. One of the toughest decisions was picking out his casket. Then, where would we bury him? Are you kidding me? Bury? He was just here with me yesterday! Who would be the pallbearers? What songs did we want played? Who would sing? What Scriptures? What kind of flowers for the casket spray? What time for the funeral? I just wanted my world to stop so I could absorb what had happened, but it would not. I couldn't understand how other people around me were able to carry on a normal life when my life had just been completely torn apart!
I felt like I had been forced onto a major road detour and immediately required to make life-changing decisions in a foreign country I was not prepared to enter, where I knew no one and couldn’t even speak the language! In the blink of an eye everything in my world had been turned upside down.
Create a Road Map with Preparing with Purpose
Because of that wrenching experience, I understand how difficult it can be to make decisions for those who are left behind. It has become my mission through Love Legacy to provide a road map that helps ease those burdens – a map prepared ahead of time, before something happens, not after it’s too late.
Preparing with Purpose will take some time and effort, but it’s not going to be that hard, I promise! It’s really just doing a few simple but important things in life before it's too late.
We Make it Easy to Prepare
Take the burden of decision-making off the table for your loved ones by planning and preparing ahead of time. Put your personal wishes and desires into an organized system. We’re giving you all the tools you need to reduce the confusion and stress that can occur with the death or disability of a loved one. You will leave a great gift of organized details, stories and memories for your loved ones.
We’ll start you off easy, with the simple tasks of finding important documents and putting information on a page. So take a deep breath, grab a cup of coffee, and refer back to the "What to Gather Checklist" for your beginning steps.
Beth
Testimonials
Sandy R.
“I recommend Beth’s Preparing with Purpose to women that I work with in Women’s Ministry. It is such a thorough, well thought-out and well planned program. It is an excellent plan for all ages, individuals and families.”
Jim & Dorothy M
“Preparing with Purpose has given us great confidence to know that our children can get our affairs easy together when the time comes.”
Sara N.
“I was so excited to be a grandma. I imagined going on walks, baking cookies and doing crafts. I never dreamed that my grandchildren would live eight states away. I have learned so much from Beth that has allowed me to be a far-away gumma and stay engaged and connected with my granddaughter.”