Have you got your Affairs in Order?

It’s one of those things that you keep thinking you need to do, but somehow gets pushed down the weekly to-do list. In all fairness, who likes to think it’s ever going to get to that point where things actually DO end?….. that someone (normally a close family member) will need to pack-up your possessions, distribute them to not-sure who, find a new owner for your budgie and finalise your life…

I don’t blame you, it’s easier to move onto other thoughts which might give more joy… such as another beautiful experience on this planet - but we all know that at some point it needs to be faced and better to bite the bullet and complete local author Shanna Provost’s book the Rest Easy Journal – a down to earth approach to dying and Voila!… it’s done and you can happily get back to living.

The real motivation should come not only from making sure the beloved animals were not gifted to a distant cousin but that your departure has not left a chaotic physical and administrational nightmare for those left living! Closing down someone’s life is a headache in the best of times … but if the Rest Easy Journal has been filled out, it’s more like a Gift - it’s a huge relief from the burden finishing up a deceased person’s life can be. During times of grief.. the focus is on what that person would have wanted, what wishes he or she wanted carried out… and it definitely helps a lot if you know what those wishes are.

The Rest Easy Journal is a 94-page hard-copy journal that prompts you through five important topics: what to do when you die, a record of your digital footprint, your financial and business matters, your funeral wishes and a ‘life snapshot’ (great for creating eulogies!).

Shanna Provost is a renowned end-of-life specialist and funeral celebrant who has seen the stress on loved ones when things haven’t been written down. Relieving them of decision making is a kind thing to do - opposed to siblings arguing over ‘What mum would have wanted.” Shanna says so many people have said to her, ‘If only we’d asked when they were alive.”

Shanna has revised this book over the many years of her career as things have changed so rapidly, social media passwords inclusions and increased security protocols with banks. And it also includes mental prompts such as - such as phone numbers for friends and associates you’d like contacted BEFORE a funeral so they don’t miss out; and which important documents should be kept together in a ‘Grab and Go’ kit. Shanna also talks about considerations like leaving a box of spare keys on the top of the fridge so the garage door can be opened, the lawn mover moved etc., - practical things we would never consider but an absolute nightmare for someone like a grieving daughter who finds herself rummaging through every draw in the house to find them…