Many people claim they have their end-of-life planning under control because they have their wills, trusts and other legal and financial plans in place. However, because wealth management is only one component of end-of-life planning, they are not yet finished. Think of end-of-life planning as both a left-brain and a right-brain process. The financial and legal preparations are left-brain activities. Right-brain activities are emotional and include removing hassle from a loved one s life, doing what is necessary to keep the family together by avoiding sibling divorceTM while creating eldercare plans, making the difficult personal decisions about where to live and how best to resolve the matter of the family home, talking with a loved one about their legacy, celebrating their life and making burial plans, spending time together and finally, saying good-bye. MY QUESTION TO YOU IS THIS: If you are only focusing on left-brain activities, to the exclusion of right-brain activities, are you doing end-of-life planning with only half a brain? Plan While You Still Can is an intensely pragmatic and personal series of 16 hands-on checklists, each supplemented with personal stories and lessons learned. It was developed as a result of helping individuals and their family members deal calmly and rationally with their unique situations when each person learned that they had a terminal condition. End-of-life planning is both emotionally draining, and universally needed. Yet people often prefer not to face it until it is in-their-face. But unfortunately, it is a fact that many people are only one diagnosis away from financial disaster, and by then, it is often too late. The good news is that, using the tools in Plan While You Still Can, the reader can calmly and rationally gain peace-of-mind while creating the framework of an effective end-of-life plan.
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Editorial Reviews
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Plan While You Still Can- 16 End of Life Checklist You Need Now is a clear-cut, easy to follow resource guide for caregivers, professionals, and families navigating the maze of end of life issues. The topics and checklists covered help readers to develop an awareness of their own mortality as well as to enable them to help the frail members of their family or community to meet death with grace and clarity. This inspiring book gives unparalleled insight into the intricate challenges of estate planning, long-term care and end of life issues. Facing the approaching end-of-life needs of his own parents and his in-laws, Burrows slogged through the process without the benefit of any guidebooks or resources. As he went through the process not once, not twice, but five times he wished for checklists for smoothing the process. As he went through the hoops over and over, Burrows knew there had to be a better way to face this time and tackle each related problem and issue. Once he made up his mind to write this book he refined his processes and began to create more checklists to help him and others deal with the herculean task of planning in smaller, more manageable chunks. Soon he had a straightforward, well developed plan for each stage of end-of-life decision making. He began to share it with others close to him who were helping their own family members. Coping with the impending loss of a loved one is one of the most difficult challenges a family faces. One of the greatest lessons put forth so poignantly in Plan While You Still Can is to create dialogue before the situation has reached crisis level. Decide what is important at the end of your life and put it in writing so that it clearly communicates your wishes with your family or a designated care giver. As America s baby boomers continue to age and transition into this final phase in their lives, they and their families will have to learn to respond and adapt to the changes. Plan While You Still Can is an excellent resource to start that dialogue and help give perspective to those involved in managing the process. --Shannon Evans
Many people of faith, while devoted and devotional in their daily lives, are still reliant upon their spiritual leaders for helping them through the nitty-gritty details that accompany a loved one's death (or the preparation for one's own), as well as the grief process itself. It is a part of our calling, as clergy, to assist people with these details, but it can also be quite time-consuming and even redundant. Don has provided us professional care-givers with this book, a means of helping many people prepare in advance for addressing those myriad details. And, while it will be a helpful addition to the library of any house of worship, even those who do not consider themselves particularly religious will find it a useful guide for preparing for end-of-life issues. Having recently commended my own father to God's eternal care, I can personally testify to the author's insights and organizational skills. Thank you for ministering to me, even though you didn't know that you were doing so. I look forward to being able to recommend this book to many others for years to come. --Pastor David Poland
I suspect that for those who have firsthand experience with the ultimate transition of a parent, the book will be a jarring reminder of the opportunities lost, the errors made and the deeds undone that often come with the crystal clear vision of hindsight . . . particularly when that vision is enhanced by the lens this splendid work provides. In my case the view was somewhat blurred by some long suppressed tears. Plan While You Still Can is a celebration of life, or more importantly, living. Birth and death are the bookends; this is about treasuring and valuing the story in between. It offers a way of preparing for the inevitable event that still somehow takes us by surprise. Even when a loved one's diagnosis is terminal, we are somehow surprised by the sense of panic, or whirling emotions, or flood of familial flotsam that so often accompanies an experience that, none-the-less, unifies us all. --JonScott Williams
Many people of faith, while devoted and devotional in their daily lives, are still reliant upon their spiritual leaders for helping them through the nitty-gritty details that accompany a loved one's death (or the preparation for one's own), as well as the grief process itself. It is a part of our calling, as clergy, to assist people with these details, but it can also be quite time-consuming and even redundant. Don has provided us professional care-givers with this book, a means of helping many people prepare in advance for addressing those myriad details. And, while it will be a helpful addition to the library of any house of worship, even those who do not consider themselves particularly religious will find it a useful guide for preparing for end-of-life issues. Having recently commended my own father to God's eternal care, I can personally testify to the author's insights and organizational skills. Thank you for ministering to me, even though you didn't know that you were doing so. I look forward to being able to recommend this book to many others for years to come. --Pastor David Poland
I suspect that for those who have firsthand experience with the ultimate transition of a parent, the book will be a jarring reminder of the opportunities lost, the errors made and the deeds undone that often come with the crystal clear vision of hindsight . . . particularly when that vision is enhanced by the lens this splendid work provides. In my case the view was somewhat blurred by some long suppressed tears. Plan While You Still Can is a celebration of life, or more importantly, living. Birth and death are the bookends; this is about treasuring and valuing the story in between. It offers a way of preparing for the inevitable event that still somehow takes us by surprise. Even when a loved one's diagnosis is terminal, we are somehow surprised by the sense of panic, or whirling emotions, or flood of familial flotsam that so often accompanies an experience that, none-the-less, unifies us all. --JonScott Williams
About the Author
Over the course of more than thirty years, in the author s career as a human resources professional, he has helped others grow and succeed through his dedication to personal and skills training and development. An only child, it fell to him to assist his parents as they aged, became infirm, and died, a responsibility he embraced with compassion and commitment. Along the way, his wife s parents and family also needed his help to maneuver through the maze of complicated decisions, forms, laws, regulations and heart-wrenching family decisions about whether to use medical devices to prolong life or to die in accordance with their wishes. Learning of his growing experience and competency, friends began to ask for his advice and council. Finding he had an aptitude and a gift for helping others bring order, dignity and a sense of calm to families and individuals facing death, he listened to family members who encouraged him to document what he had learned about eldercare planning and end-of-life decisions, and be of service. Discussing with others his plans to write this book, he immediately discovered a huge need: elderly singles and couples, adult children of elderly parents, members of the clergy, providers of eldercare services, insurance, banking, legal, investment and medical professionals all enthusiastically told him they needed a short, easy-to-understand and easy-to-apply blueprint written in layman s language for end-of-life planning. Their reactions spurred him to commit time and energy to start and complete this book. As the book neared completion and Don began to consider the reality of it actually being published, others with whom he spoke saw the opportunity for him to use the book to render even greater service. They encouraged him to use the book as the blueprint to offer continuing education classes, public seminars, speaking engagements, corporate consulting, DVDs, and family consulting to help families navigate their way through this difficult time. Drawing upon his years of experience in conflict management, a unique focus of his burgeoning practice is to help siblings and family members come to naturally ethical agreement in creating and implementing eldercare plans with and for their parents, so as to avoid what he calls sibling divorce. TM A Marylander, Don Burrows graduated from the University of Maryland with Bachelor s and Master s degrees in Latin American Studies and Latin American Literature. Fluent in Latin American Spanish, he is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Reserves, is married, the proud father of two, stepfather of two, and grandfather of two. He spends his free time walking in support of breast cancer research and helping himself and others achieve goals through personal growth and development, in Spanish as well as English. He and his wife, Karin, their Doberman, Ruthie, and cat, Seamus, live north of Seattle, WA.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Burrows is SPOT ON! Great Book!!!,
By Rev. Ronald G. Cosseboom "Rev. Ronald G." (Arvada, CO United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
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This review is from: Plan While You Still Can: 16 End-of-Life Checklists You Need Now (Perfect Paperback)
Mr. Donald Burrows has written a MUST HAVE BOOK for ANY BABY BOOMER! It is informative, well organized and SPOT ON with all we need to know for our later years. IT IS A MUST GET NOW before it is too late.
Rev. Ronald G. Cosseboom
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great resource for the "sandwich generation" and beyond,
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This review is from: Plan While You Still Can: 16 End-of-Life Checklists You Need Now (Perfect Paperback)
I wish I'd had this book before my mother passed on. It contains so many ideas and hints about things one might miss - even if he or she considers herself rather "savvy." Right up-front, Don Burrows tells the reader that he is not a lawyer. I consider that fact a "plus." He's one who has "been there, done that" in taking care of end-of-life plans for several family members.
If you have an aging loved one - or if you ARE an aging person - consider getting this book (and its companion workbook) for yourself and the other decision-makers who will want input on end-of-life plans. Although I consider myself in good health, not only did I get my own copy but purchased copies for both my sons. It truly helps if all the caregivers (or potential caregivers) are on the "same page" before crucial decisions need to be made! Don Burrows puts it altogether for family members who will be involved. Save a family squabble, and get multiple copies of this book!
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