I thought this title would get your attention and I am posting a pie recipe but first I wanted to talk about something very important.
This is for young and old and I ask you to read it through.
Recently a friend passed away and before he passed and was still in the hospital his wife was very worried and said that he always took care of everything, meaning finances, bills and such. She did not know what she was going to do because she did not know where everything was and he kept some things in files on the computer and she did not know how to get into the files. She knew nothing about the bank account and she had reason to be concerned. It was too late to ask. There are many families that one person takes care of all the finances and this is not necessarily a good thing.
Some people never make it to the nursing home or home care point. For my Father-in-law he had a sudden heart attack and was gone.
We are all going to pass away at some point. Some very young and some
very old and many in between. Many of us live as if we will stay in these
earthly tents forever but we are not and yet we keep going and ignoring
one of the most important things we are suppose to do and that is to
get our things in order before we die.
If we prepare to leave, to die, then we can enjoy living.
If we just get all of those things out of the way so our families do not
have to make decisions when they are distraught. It is like preparing
for a disaster and having emergency supplies on hand and extra canned
goods. You have it, keep it updated then if and when something happens
you are not standing in line with all the other uncomfortable people
that were not prepared.
When my parents started their health decline it seemed to snowball down hill fast.
They were in and out of hospitals and I had a job. I needed to be there with them because hospital mistakes were being made. One morning as I arrived to my fathers hospital room he was on a stretcher going for foot surgery but he did not have a foot problem that needed surgery. He had a stroke and could not tell them he was not the patient for the foot surgery. It was just awful. We all had been going about our lives,our routines and none of us were prepared.
Our home was not prepared to bring them in and we had to rush to make temporary accommodations and then figure out everything else. It was very stressful.
We needed papers and signatures, power
of attorney and such to pick up and do these things for them but found that they had been struggling with doing these things for some time and it was a big mess. There were bills to pay and then there was years of
accumulated stuff. It is difficult to do these things when all has gone
downhill and we are trying to care for them and take care of all the
other things that should have been taking care of.
Recently two family members have passed away, both knowing that they had a terminal illness yet they did not make preparations. Why? Because we simply put it off thinking it is far away.
There is an exhaustion that cannot be described that a caregiver goes through when being the main person to care for a loved one. We cannot plan for everything but there are things that can be discussed and written down before the situation gets bad and those things need to be done legally before things get serious.
It does not matter if we are in our 20s or our 90s we need to have our finances, our wills, our power of attorneys in order because anything can happen. A car accident, a heart attack, cancer, stroke or even the flu.
Right now while we are well we should put things in order. Clear our files and have our paperwork in order.
Once we are sick it is getting too late to get things in order unless it is done right away but really it should be done when are lives are going well.
If we do not have a will, a power of attorney, a plan of your wishes, burial or cremation plans and a letter to your family what you want them to know then it is time to do so no matter what your age. Do you have things unsettled? Things that you do not want your children or nieces or nephews or neighbors having to take care of if something happens then it is time to get that in order.
A funeral planned before hand costs much less than a funeral at need.
Do we have years of paperwork that needs shredding? If we do not sort and shred it then someone else will, I know because we had to shred for three family members that passed and it took forever. Boxes and boxes of things to go through and I am sure they would have not wanted us to go through their papers but we did because they had not done this.
Recently I had an incident and I was in the ER all day, then they kept me overnight into the next evening. I try to learn something from all experiences so the next day I said to myself, I will change purses to a slightly larger purse, donate this one and from now on I will always carry an extra pair of socks, panties, hairbrush, toothbrush and a phone charger. I like to live prepared because it can be uncomfortable if we are not. I will also carry a sweater no matter how hot it is outside. This short trip to the hospital recently was a reminder to go back and check that everything is in order.
I am not talking about living like we are doomed and something is going to happen any moment but living settled knowing that when something does happen we have a plan.
We do not need to put off another day what needs to be done today. When someone we love dies it makes us reflect on many things. Often their belongings will be donated and it makes us realize that we really do not need as many things as we think we do and if we live our life more simple it will be easier to manage when we slow down.
If we have not organized for ourselves, then we need to think of our family and organize for them so they do not have so much to do once we are gone.
Now that the serious stuff is over, take a breath, shake it off.
Here is a great pie recipe.
A very old recipe for apple pie
This was my mothers recipe for apple pie.
It says, 1 cup sugar if apples are tart and 3/4 cup sugar if the apples are sweet.
2 Tablespoons flour, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon salt.
7 cups peeled and sliced apples
2 Tablespoons butter
Combine sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt and mix well with the apples. Heap the apple mixture in a pie crust and dot wit butter. Then left off is top with pie crust and bake in 350 degree oven for 60 minutes or until crust is brown.
I will add that If the crust is browning too soon, place a thin sheet of foil over the top and continue to bake until done.
Grandma Donna
