None of us really like to think of death/dying, especially when it comes to our Moms, Dads, Sisters, Brothers, Grandparents, best friends...or ourselves.  You can count me in on that one.  I put off planning my "estate", creating a will and power of attorney, etc., until I really got sick and thought I wasn't going to make it.  That was in the mid-90's. Obviously, I did recover, but I also realized that planning that late in the process of living wasn't very smart. I created a plan after I recovered and I update it about every five years (or when something significant happens).  I've even planned my memorial service; I don't plan to have a funeral, per se.  As a part of that memorial service, I've built a slideshow I want shown at the service.  I decided rather than have my family, whom I assume will be grieving, and then scrambling, looking through 60 some photo albums and 40 carousels of 35mm slides for pictures of me, I'd do that for them.  (Besides, there are some pictures I don't want the "world" to see, and by me choosing the pictures, I'm hoping to prevent that from happening.)  About once a year, I go in and update the slideshow, so my business partner, and one of my very best friends (and she's younger than me), can put an ending image and title slide on the show and that's it.  By building my own memorial slideshow, I got to use the music I wanted, the captions I wanted, as well as the pictures of me that don't make me look like an idiot. I'd told my Mom what I'd done.  She thought it was such a great idea that she scoured all her albums and pulled pictures she wanted in her celebration of life slideshow.  I built the show for her and she had me change a few pictures, captions, etc., but for the most part, her celebration of life DVD is done.  Again, about once a year I go in and update it and post it on a private website so only she can see it.  (She doesn't want anyone seeing it until it's "time".) Since then, we've built several Celebrations of Life and Memorials for people, planning their final departures.  We keep them on"file" so to speak until it's time to finalize the shows/DVDs and give them to their families for the services. While death/dying are hard to think about and it's hard to find the time to review/choose pictures, what made it easier for me is knowing I'm saving the ones I love and who survive me the "ordeal".  (I had to literally go through 1000's of photos/slides, since I once fancied myself a photographer.) I didn't mean to put a downer on your day, but it is something we all must think about sometime.   ...read more