Willing.

Fixit and I signed our wills today and lodged them with the solicitor. We've been grown-ups for more than half our lives now, it seemed the time was right. The fact that Fixit came perilously close to dying from the Pulmonary Embolisms nearly 6 years ago might have spurred us on ... well... hardly at all, really. I suppose what that little episode did was put will-making on the agenda. Because, before then, wills were for people who (a) were old, and -more significantly- (b) had money and/or possessions to leave. Well, we're technically in our primes and we still haven't got a lot to leave but we do now have someone to leave it to. Even so, we might not have got around to it had we not bid for a Will Preparation Service as part of last year's Creche Auction & Trivia Night. And just under a year since we won the bidding on that item, we have finally got the whole thing done. You don't want to rush into this sort of thing.

Prior to getting ours done, the only thing I knew about will-making was gleaned from English detective fiction and involved the deceased having recently sent for their man of business to make last minute changes to the will, which tended to be why they were murdered. Modern day Australian will-making involves documents being mailed back and forth, the occasional phone call and an appearance in a solicitors' premises to sign it in front of witnesses. The good news is that I don't think anyone would bother murdering us, as we've bugger-all to leave. Just the children and a pitiful amount of savings, really. None of it was hard, exactly, but it was all a little confronting, especially the bit where we approached the designated guardians and asked if we could leave our children to them. Oh, and the bit about facing the possibility that we could die.

Anyway. I am now happy with the provisions we've made for the children. My overwhelming desire was to try and give them a home environment which would be as akin to their present one as possible. I also documented my wish to be cremated; the thought of my body being laid to rest out in a far-flung suburb was strangely repellent to me, even though I'd be dead and I wouldn't know. Instead I requested that my ashes be scattered under the jacaranda trees at our favourite park. If I can't be physically there for my boys, then at least they can sit under a purple tree and commune with my memory. (*sniffle*)

So we can die with a clear conscience now. Sort of. But if it's all right with the powers that be, I'd prefer not to, for a very long time, okay?