What if ... Workbook: Give the Gift of Preparedness to Your Loved Ones
Here's Gwen W. Morgan's story of how she came to write the "What if... Workbook."In 1996 her mother, Fern Wingate, passed away after eight years of suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. In 1997, her father-in-law, Carl Morgan, passed away from Lou Gehrig's Disease. Gwen knew it was time to stop and evaluate what really mattered in her life.During his illness, Carl was visited by a hospice volunteer who provided great conversation and friendship, while offering his wife Marion a sympathetic ear as she dealt with Carl's illness. Gwen thought this was a wonderful service; so she went through the hospice training program and became a Hospice volunteer. Through hospice she found she loved helping the elderly, and began working with seniors, providing companionship, taking them to doctor's appointments and doing light housekeeping for them.In October of 2000, Gwen's Aunt Jeanette passed away. At her funeral reception, Gwen was struck by how calm her cousin Michele was. Michele explained that her mom was very prepared for her death: she had designated the dress she wanted to be laid out in, she wanted her rosary in the casket, had pre-purchased her burial plot and headstone, things of this nature. Gwen remembers thinking, What a GIFT to know all of this information beforehand! Her family had given no thought to these issues when her own mom had died. The seed of the idea for a fill-in-the-blank organizational book was planted.