Author: Taylor Willingham

Publisher:

Published: 2020-04-27

Total Pages: 203

ISBN-13:

I nibbled on a Jack in the Box breaded curly fry and felt my heartbeat accelerate. I braced myself on the table and took a few deep breaths. I became hyper-aware of the smooth jazz playing over the speakers. My chest wouldn't stop pounding. I took another bite. The restaurant rocked like a ship in a hurricane. My friend, Jeff, was talking, "This could be the last time we'll be able to eat lunch together for a long time. I can't risk my kid getting the coronavirus. I think I'm having a heart attack." I think I said it out loud, but it was to no one in particular. Jeff was busy ordering a burger and a large fry. "Put your head between your legs." He turned back to the counter and continued to order. "Yes, I'm thinking the number two, but I'm not sure."My heart rapped out an incessant staccato, and my chest began to tighten. "This is it," I thought. "Taylor Phillip Willingham will die of a heart attack in a Jack in the Box in the middle of a pandemic. The coroner will have to clean ketchup off of my tie."Jeff strolled over and examined my face. "You don't look so good. Maybe we should go to the hospital? Oh, wait. Maybe not."I hurried back to my office and slammed the door. I called in one of my employees, Brittni. She had me call her husband, who was a firefighter. "You are just having a panic attack," he assured me, before returning to people who were surely in greater trouble than I.I slumped down in my chair and thought about how the night before, I woke up at 3 AM, drenched in sweat. I was having a nightmare that I was in the ICU, plugged into countless machines, unable to speak with my family. My wife had the sole power of attorney for my law firm and title company, but she didn't know how to run them. The company crumbled. That morning, I drafted a resolution that put three trusted employees, Jamie, Mark, and Kellianne, in charge of my businesses if something happened to me. I'm an estate planning attorney, but I still had failed to set up my businesses to run for just a few weeks without me.COVID-19 is a sobering situation. I have five children and a wife, and the thought of losing any of them to this disease terrifies me. Despite the public awareness of the virus, very few realize that far more of us will be incapacitated from this disease than will die from it. You might want to brush all of this aside and just "think positive". I have heard that point of view so many times that I wrote a whole book on the matter. You will die, and all that will be left are memories. Any money you leave behind will quickly be spread out and used up. The most important things that outlive you, the people you have loved and the relationships you have created can be either strengthened or irreparably damaged by the way you structure your legacy. It is your choice. But I digress. This book focuses on incapacitation, not death. I work with clients every day who are in this situation. Who do not have access to funds. Who have no one to assist them in their weakest moments. I'm not a doctor, so this book will not focus on COVID-19, but as an elder law attorney, I can teach you exactly what to do if you or your loved one becomes disabled.