Facilitator - Allen Hoppes
Life is wonderful, but preparing for death helps keep it that way.
Most of us accept that we will die and we have preferences about how that will happen.
Obviously, dying is not something most of us choose and many parts of it are out of our hands, but we can think about what we want and don't want, and put in place the directions which will provide us and our loved ones peace of mind when our death is near.
Just as planning for a trip requires preparation in order for things to go as smoothly as possible, preparing for our death means we can rest assured that our desires will be considered and put into action, allowing us to know that we will be cared for as we wish and that those left behind will be more at peace knowing that this is what we wanted.
We're all going to die--everybody knows that.
The question is, if we want to be prepared, not just legally with wills, but also with advance directives ('living wills'), power of attorney, legacies, your digital presence, your preference for your funeral and body care, among other things.
I can help you consider most of the issues which you should prepare for, so these things are not left in the hands of the people who are grieving your loss.
I can help you be prepared.
I live on the island of Madeira, a Portuguese island 500 kilometres off the coast of Morocco, but thanks to the internet, we can meet at your convenience online.
My travel company is based in the US, though I lived in Spain for over 15 years and I now live in Portugal.
I have a will and a living will in each of these places as I have assets in all of them and the laws regarding wills are different in each one.
I can help you navigate the different rules of different places.
I'm a native English speaker, but my Spanish is good and my French is passable (though I maintain a pronounced American accent in all of them).
I can walk you through the steps to being prepared, probably including things you hadn't thought about, such as what your online 'presence' will be after your death and how you can set that up.
Let's talk about death--and how preparing for it makes life more care-free and also precious.
It can be difficult to contemplate our own death.
It somehow seems to 'invite' catastrophe, or bad luck.
The fact of the matter is that not contemplating our own death can leave us flowing along, busy with life's challenges and joys, trying to forget that we will all die.
The act of contemplating our deaths and exploring what we want, what we actually believe, and how we want the days and years prior to and immediately after our deaths to be, makes us appreciate each day we live more.
It lets us decide and direct how we want to be cared for when we may have lost the capacity to state that and it allows those who remain after our death to feel comforted in the knowledge that they have done their best to do as we wished.
Contemplating our death can intensify our appreciation of life each day and can demonstrate who we are and what was important to us to those we leave behind.
Life will go on without us; but we can make that life a bit more comfortable for those who remain by planning well.
+351 926 433 180
Lombo da Levada N23
São João, Ribeira Brava,
Madeira 9350-128 Portugal
Let's Talk
| Mark Twain wrote, 'Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.'
If you want to consider life and death and if you want to feel more confident about what happens before you die, while you are dying and also after you are dead, or if you need to get your 'ducks in a row' in different countries, please contact me and let's get some of the practical and also the philosophical aspects of life and death out in the open. Let me help you prepare for your end of life in a way that may help you enjoy your current life more. If living a good life and dying a good death are important to you, let's make some plans. |
Services I offer
I offer the Before I Go Method course, which is a comprehensive course with a workbook that addresses all the issues involved in end of life planning.
This course will help us navigate the numerous issues one should consider as part of a good end of life plan.
The laws governing wills, living wills, power of attorney, body care options, etc, vary from place to place, but with my help and this course, I can walk you through the major aspects of a comprehensive end of life plan.
I can help make you aware of options which you may not have known existed and also prepare for end of life issues you may not have considered.
About me
| I've been a traveler for about 50 years.
I'm originally from Pennsylvania, in the US, but I left there to discover the world and eventually decided to share my love of travel with others and established my own travel company. I've found that dealing with challenges and finding out about people and places has been invigorating for me. One of my favorite quotes, by Kurt Vonnegut, is 'peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God,' and as I like both travel and dancing (and I'm fine with God, too), I have followed peculiar travel suggestions, going far off the beaten track to Turkmenistan, the Island Kingdom of Tonga, serving as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali and many other places. Trying to understand the world, and life, has been my motivation. I now live in a place which feels like home after a lifetime of travel, but my curiosity about life now includes contemplating death. I am enjoying renovating a traditional house here in Madeira, including planting fruit trees whose fruit I may never eat, but that is part of the legacy I want to leave to those who are here after I am gone. My day-to-day life features much joy and part of that joy is the feeling that I will be leaving a small part of the Earth a bit better than I found it. For me, end of life planning, including what I will leave behind for others, brings joy and peace. By the way, the village I live near is called Boa Morte, 'good death' in Portuguese--how fitting! |
