AMY PICKARD

I was at a death-friendly party thrown by an author who has written about death . I didn ' t feel self-conscious about saying what I do for a living . I was sitting across from a couple in their 40 ' s . They asked , " What do you do ?" I said , " Well , I run an unconventional advanced planning company called Good To Go . I guide people through their advanced planning paperwork .” They were fascinated and kept asking me questions , but the husband would say things like , " So , you do that for people in hospices and senior citizen centers ?” I said , " Yes , I ' ve had clients who have been in hospice or clients who know they have a terminal diagnosis , but I mainly target people like yourselves ."

" For example , do you have a will ? Do you have a living will ? If something happened to both of you , who has keys to your place ? Who knows to talk to the landlord and sort it all out ? Those little things that someone has to know after you die .” He was like , " Yeah , but I mean nobody I know is going to have to know that until later ." I said , “ Oh , well , let me get my pen , so I can write down when you know that date ' s going to be ." His wife kept nudging him with her elbow and rolling her eyes .

He just would not come around to the fact that none of us are guaranteed a tomorrow . We never know when death ’ s going to happen , so why not be prepared now , even if it happens 20 years down the line ? But he was convinced that he wasn ’ t going to die . I asked him . " Do you have an earthquake preparedness kit ?” He said , " Yeah ." I said , " So an earthquake may or not happen to the extent that you would need that kit , but you have it , and yet death is definitely 100 % going to happen , and yet you have nothing prepared .”

Needless to say , they didn ' t spend too much time talking to me after that …

42 | ART OF DYING