Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The Oh-Oh file...


Last year, when Mars died unexpectedly, I realized that living on my own has some implications around making plans for dying on my own. As half of a couple, Dave and I at least had a sense of where the bank records, insurance documents, etc existed, and if one or the other of us were to die, the other could work out the financial paperwork on his or her own, without too much trouble.

It's been nearly a year since Mars passed, and I haven't completed the Oh-Oh file yet. Recently, I took a tumble that turned out okay, but could just as easily have been really not okay, and now I'm motivated all over again.

So, what's in the Oh-Oh file? a roadmap to information, essentially. An emergency contact list, bank accounts, online passwords, life insurance, a will (gotta update that, too), where to find the deed to the house, title to the truck, all that boring stuff.

When Mars died, some of his family apparently knew his Facebook sign-in info, and posted lovely updates and the invitation to the Life Celebration. That was nice, so I'll include social networking account info, too.

I don't intend to need this file for many many more years. But creating it feels like a grown-up thing to do. And I do plan to grow up sometime in the next twenty years or so...