I know what it's like to be a carer.
I took care of my husband for the ten years he had chronic fatigue syndrome, and then for the final year of his life while he had stomach cancer. So I know that...
You love the person you are looking after, and
- it is often very hard to find time for yourself
- your social life can so easily be curtailed (if indeed you have one at all!)
- finances are often much tighter
- it's easy to wish things were different, and the person you look after were fully healthy
I also know that, after someone has died, there are all sorts of things that have to be sorted out.
Because I've had my own experience of this, I am passionate that YOU don't have to face some of the really challenging things I had to take care of after Philip died.
Things like
- deciding how exactly I was going to get his body transported from the hospital 2 hours away, without it costing a lot of money
- not knowing how the TV worked
- wondering how on earth to fix the printer when it went wrong
- wishing I had known his password for his private account
- what to do with the sailing stories he had written of his life at sea
But I was very glad that we HAD talked about some other things, and I had written our discussions down.
These were things like....
- what to do next regarding a legal situation that would arise in the next year
- how he wanted his children and grandchildren to remember him
- what he wanted his body to be dressed in (I would never have guessed his answer to this one!)
- where he wanted his ashes scattered
He did have a bit of an end of life plan, including a will. But it didn't cover everything, and since many people told me they needed to answer the kinds of questions I had asked Philip, I set up Before I Go Solutions to help others do this.
It seemed natural to set it up as a not for profit social enterprise, and to inspire and help other carers to get their act together re their own end of life plans, and those of who they care for.
So if you care for someone, please complete this form below and you will be given access to the online Before I Go Method to enable you to create your own plan, and help your loved one to do the same.
