Oh, I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly
I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I made my baby say goodbye.Joni Mitchell – River
Yesterday evening we held a signing ceremony in our back garden. We set up the documents on a garden table and brought in, separately, two of our neighbours. We all stood overlooking the table, but several metres apart. We each then took our turn to come forward and sign the documents, two of us as signatories and two as witnesses. Naturally, we all brought our own pens.
We all laughed and joked that this was like something taking place in the Korean De-militarised Zone, or some other unhappy trouble-spot. Despite the serious nature of the task, it was good to be with other people, albeit all of us maintaining an appropriate distance.
The serious matter in hand was not a peace treaty, though we hope completing the task will give us some peace of mind at this time when we are all facing the threat of COVID-19. Mrs S and I were simply updating our Wills and asking our neighbours to witness them.
Everyone should have a Will, not just rich people or old people. We first drew up ours in 2013, when our youngest daughter was 13 and we wanted to make arrangements for who would look after her should we both suddenly die. Yesterday was just a matter of updating the arrangements now she is an adult.
Our youngest tells us she wants to make a Will too. She doesn’t have much in the way of assets, but she tells us that she’s read that, should she die, all of her student debt will be expunged. She reckons, therefore, that she should take out the maximum loan each year and leave it all to her beneficiaries!
Picture of Ruisseau des Écudets, Savoie ©Bobby Seal
