Thread: Being reminded of my own mortality

Michael, I've read similar stories and have thought I should at least document what goes with what, approx values and suggestions for disposal. But it's one of those things that's hard to actually do. But let's face it any one of us could be hit by the proverbial bus tomorrow. I think I'd want my stuff offered to forum members via the marketplace section.

Have only recently completed cleraning out my father's shed.

In the end, rather than try and sell stuff for a fraction of its true worth, I gave most of his stuff away to people who would appeciate the value.
Apart from a few high value items, I'd like the same done with my tools when that time arrives.

Michael,
Just been through a similar experience. Spent a couple of weeks trying to suppress thoughts of the "worst case " and finally got to see a specialist on Wednesday who has ruled out the all the nasty possibilities.

Can I suggest that, if you haven't already done so, you all get off your collective behinds and get the following things in order:


An Advanced Health Directive
Your will
Appoint executer/s and enduring power of attorney
A letter of wishes.

If you do all these things it leaves very little doubt in the minds of your surviving family how you wish to treated, who you entrust to handle your affairs, how you want your assets distributed, and if there are any specifics, such as your woodworking stuff, what you would like done with it.

It's all stuff we'd rather not think about but makes it so much easier for everyone, and it's peace of mind for you, if they are able to make all the necessary arrangements knowing that this is what you wanted rather than trying to guess after you're not around to ask.

Ian

I don't like "Clearance Sales".....you turn up to a property and join the long procession of lookers going up and down rows of stuff (A man's life's work/tools) layed out for the vulchers to pick over.
My wife remarked a couple of years ago that I should at the very least put a value on my shed stuff and preferably make some sort of note telling her who/where the stuff should go.
My eldest daughter has just go engaged to a deadbeat whom I definitely don't want to die knowing this bugger will end up with it. He wouldn't use any of it, he is too damn lazy, but I am sure he would cash it waste the money on him self!
I'll bet any one of us here on the Forum will have a story attached to each tool we have acquired over the years. Really I suppose the stories are a personal thing but they mean something to us
To put a cash value on our stuff today, really doesn't mean much if we don't regularly update the figures as time goes by.
Just thinking about the daughters fiance makes me want to live forever. I don't know what she sees in him......I'll shut up now

Originally Posted by chambezio

I don't like "Clearance Sales".....you turn up to a property and join the long procession of lookers going up and down rows of stuff (A man's life's work/tools) layed out for the vulchers to pick over.
My wife remarked a couple of years ago that I should at the very least put a value on my shed stuff and preferably make some sort of note telling her who/where the stuff should go.
My eldest daughter has just go engaged to a deadbeat whom I definitely don't want to die knowing this bugger will end up with it. He wouldn't use any of it, he is too damn lazy, but I am sure he would cash it waste the money on him self!
I'll bet any one of us here on the Forum will have a story attached to each tool we have acquired over the years. Really I suppose the stories are a personal thing but they mean something to us
To put a cash value on our stuff today, really doesn't mean much if we don't regularly update the figures as time goes by.
Just thinking about the daughters fiance makes me want to live forever. I don't know what she sees in him......I'll shut up now

I have three daughters and they all are either married to .or living with no hopers, my son wouldn't mind having my gear but his wife wouldn't let him out from under the thumb long enough to use it.
I do have a teenage grandaughter who just loves coming to our place and working in the shed.
Think I will have to wait a couple of years before I make a decision about all this stuff, and there is a lot of it, 50 years of collecting.

i was planning on getting buried with all my stuff

Originally Posted by Ian Smith

Can I suggest that, if you haven't already done so, you all get off your collective behinds and get the following things in order:

An Advanced Health Directive
Your will
Appoint executer/s and enduring power of attorney
A letter of wishes.

If you do all these things it leaves very little doubt in the minds of your surviving family how you wish to treated, who you entrust to handle your affairs, how you want your assets distributed, and if there are any specifics, such as your woodworking stuff, what you would like done with it.

Very pertinent Ian and well written. I'd like to expand in the Advanced Health Directive. Have we all had a talk with our families about this? My wife and I are both nurses and I have expressly stated that if I end up brain dead, a quadriplegic or anything that would drastically affect my quality of life that she MUST withdraw treatment and allow me a dignified end to my life. Easy to talk about, hard to do.

I have started a data base on everything that I have. Make it easier for the Dragon to give all to a local "men's shed". We have no kids, so it was an easy call to make.

SSAA get the rest, only family I have ever known.

DD

Hi,

My wife had our fourth son this morning. So hopefully one of them will be man enough to want my tools when I'm gone.
As for our daughter (14) I'm turning up baseball bats as we speak !

Ben.

congrats ben . you've done well. im shore theu must keep you busy

Originally Posted by bwal74

Hi,

My wife had our fourth son this morning. So hopefully one of them will be man enough to want my tools when I'm gone.
As for our daughter (14) I'm turning up baseball bats as we speak !

Ben.

Well done Ben congratulations to you and the missus i'll have a beer for the little fella tonight, Umm isn't it 6 beers for the fourth son! Ok then

A great deal of humour in regards to a serious issue- ### do we do with our prized possessions when we can no longer use them?

Just over 2.5 years ago I was rendered somewhat crippled by a sudden onset of Cauda Equina syndrome. If I hadn't been rushed into emergency back surgery I would now be a paraplegic...

Own fault really, taking on projects which were too big, thinking I was indestructible, and working too hard for certain family members who played the 'poor me' card without, as it turns out, any real reciprocation when I needed help, but that's a different story...

So here I am on a gurney waiting to be rolled over and have my spine surgically reconditioned. I asked if I could write a will..... mass panic and lots of sudden concern and attempts at re-assurance and counselling, but these are nurses and doctors, not social workers.... they thought that I was panicking. I tried to reassure them that I was trying to be pragmatic, and that if I didn't do something now I would die intestate and the government would get 30% before my wife and kids.... and they have taken enough from me already.

Obviously the surgery went okay, I'm not the man I used to be, but still functional, still working, still making my home brew, still making chips on my old school machines. At the time I thought the surgery and the recovery was inconvenient, but sometimes life has to teach you a lesson- use the muscle on your shoulders first

Back surgery is not terminal by any means, depends on your determination.... after 15 hours I told them to take away the PCA machine (I did press the button to see what it would do....) and three weeks later I did a circumnavigation of the outside of Casey Hospital on crutches.

However it is that human spirit that desires, perhaps, that the things we gave our life to will be appreciated by someone else, despite the transience of life.

My children worship my tools and my machines nearly as much as they worship their father... but things can change. At the end of the day if my stuff was melted down and turned into Hyundais (or worse still, a Toyota Prius ) it would be disappointing, and such a loss to the human race in terms of embedded energy, intelligence and learning opportunities. However, what can I do? I'll be dead.

I suppose the best you can do is make sure your stuff goes to someone who deserves it and will look after it, even though it will upset your family if it is someone unrelated, and they might even contest the will even if they don't want it.

I have joked occasionally that if my kids don't want my tools, my last request will be to have my body thrown into the crucible with all my stuff to create a single ingot of the hardest alloy known to man- Roscotanium. Then my family can sell it to the Victorian Government, and it will be placed next to the Yellow Peril.

One thing I have sort of gathered up along the path of my life is that for me material objects are just one way to generate experiences and for me experiences have begun to matter much more to me than possessions and what eventually happens to them. Perhaps this is different for collectors where the experience is just the possession of an object.

It sounds daft when I say to people that I have milled over 120 logs and have bits and piece of these stashed up all over WA but I would not be that devastated if they were all to all disappear. I enjoyed the experience of milling them so much that the timber is in some ways just a bonus.

The same applies to my tools including the dozens I have made. I will probably tell my family that if no one can use my stuff they can donate it to a mens shed but I have no illusion that they will be treat the tools in any special way.

Originally Posted by bwal74

My wife had our fourth son this morning. So hopefully one of them will be man enough to want my tools when I'm gone.
As for our daughter (14) I'm turning up baseball bats as we speak !

congratulations, but FIVE kids !

how do you move them all around?
two cars ?
a small bus ?