As I have shared with clients hundreds of times before, to honor his legacy, let me tell you about a former client, Jon. He died of brain cancer in his 40s, just a few years after his divorce was finalized. He was a wonderful father who endured a truly horrific custody battle. He was being separated from his children based on lies and a gender biased court system that either doesn't work or takes too long when it does. This gentleman came to see me at the start of a tumultuous divorce with a restraining order preventing him from spending time or communicating with his two young children based on fabricated allegations of child abuse. I counseled him, as I did all my clients, to prioritize taking care of himself during such a stressful time - join the gym, get a dog, find a therapist, make time for your friends, anything to take care of themselves. The system failed him despite my best efforts. Sadly, even after the allegations were proven to be lies, his wife maintained primary custody, and he ultimately agreed to an every-other-week and a night-for-dinner schedule to stop the litigation, the expenses, and the damage the ongoing proceedings were having on his children.

Less than a year after his case was over, he came to my office one day to see me and shared that he had been diagnosed with end-stage brain cancer. We cried together. He wanted two things. He wanted to know if I would hold a letter to his children, to give them when they were 18, so that they would one day know the truth about what happened and how hard he fought for them. He also wanted to write a letter for me to give my future clients to share his story with and to encourage them to heed my advice about the connection between illness and stress. He said he would come by in a few weeks and drop them off. He didn't. A few weeks after I expected him to return, I thought of him while falling asleep, picked up my phone, and googled his name, thinking perhaps he had already passed. He had. I printed his obituary, which included a lovely photo of him, hung it in my conference room, and shared his story with every future client.

One of the features of planning with me is that every plan includes a heartfelt family legacy recording. We will create this recording at the end of the planning process, and it will be kept with your documents for your loved ones to cherish when they need it most. There, they will find a precious gift-a gift of love. Your voice, sharing insights, stories, wishes, and dreams, is truly beautiful. I am deeply aware of how meaningful this would have been for Jon.