Thanks for the trouble of finding that Cas, I've bookmarked it too.
I've been coerced into choosing the convertible night/day sofa instead of my preferred lounge when moving to accommodate a rel who has offered to stay over if I need her to, after some yet unforeseen op or similar, but knowing there is another option is a comfort.
OzarkGal:... One thing I know for sure is that I will not be warehoused in a nursing home, waiting to die, if I am in my right mind when that time comes.
Strangely enough that doesn't hold the fears for me that it once did. If I'm gaga it won't matter where I am, but if I still have my marbles then the internet has opened a world to those in Nursing Home condition to continue to live, if only vicariously, in their minds. That awful pit of loneliness and boredom of people plopped in armchairs like bundles of rags to stare at each other or the walls is largely a thing of the past.
Or it least is has been in the facilities I've seen over the last decade. Those bed-ridden even, can summon the energy to look at and press a button or two on a laptop. It's better than watching ads on a TV all day. Our parents generation couldn't be expected to adapt to using computers at that late stage of their life, but it is all too accessible to ours to utilize. It offers a connection to the world and to relatives through emails or even... yuk... Facebook. It has funnies to be found and hobbies to research, and gives us the global circus to watch.
The ceiling and wall staring days can be over if we choose to see out our last days still 'enjoying the ride.'
Thank you Tim Berners Lee, bet you didn't see that aspect of your invention.
Bet you didn't envisage we doddering old has-beens croaking our last opinions and dribbling on our keyboards did ya?
Anne: Jilly; I'm sorry you are having to go through this...is there anyone you could stay with temporarily while you recover from the surgery you need?? Your daughter; or even a neighbor or friend, maybe?? Do you have siblings nearby??
I've offered her a spare bed but she wouldn't get far from it if she was relying on me to care for her physically. All it would accomplish would be doubling the number of old crocks in the house.
Jackie22: I've started writing notes about different items...the story behind it and putting the note with the item, hoping the kids will take care of it. I'm still in fairly good health, but its always in the back of my mind that there will come a day soon when I will have to ask for help.
I bought some stickers but that's as far as I've gone, in putting rough valuations on my collection of antique crumb trays. I know the eBay queen of the family will sell them off with glee, but as similar ones can vary by big$$$ in value a 'guide' may be helpful in setting an opening price. I got a couple of mindblowing bargains from people who didn't know what they had, no reason she should miss out on a few bucks for that reason though. They're all I have that matters , the rest is 'get what can for it' junk.
THE NOTES: I did a post on the SHS forum about that. About how we are the generation now that holds all the family stories, relationships, scandals, and history. We don't usually acquire a thirst for knowledge of genealogy until late in life and by that time the ones who knew where the skeletons were, and who they were, have long gone. No records can beat a family story, handed down, for detail and context. I've seen so many who have merrily charted out their ancestry without even realising that it isn't even theirs. They only need get one fact wrong, which causes them to choose the wrong person as a forebear to throw the whole thing into a farce of sheer imagination.
Contrary to popular belief we aren't all descended from Kings, and heroes, with the possible exception of Asian members who have to take into account that a mindblowing percentage of Asian DNA can be traced back to Genghis.
It's overlooked that those stories of the 'oldies' aren't told over, or after dinner these days. Too much other stuff happening now. What we were able to glean as kids eavesdropping on evening conversations isn't available to younger generations. I'm aghast that a cousin had to phone me because she didn't have a clue what her own Grandmother's name was!. "Dad just called her Mum." and she'd died long before the cousin was born. .. a point to think about?
I've been doing 'stories' on family people in Ancestry to put them into the context of what, and who they were to make them more real to anyone who wants to chase it further in the future. I've only gone back as far as people I 'know' from memory of conversations about them in my youth over the dining table or mentioned in passing. It is truly amazing that a single sentence, uttered by a Grandmother 60 years ago and remembered for God knows what reason can make all the difference in choosing the correct John,Joseph,Thomas or William to ensure the record is of the right family.
e.g.
Given names in the 1800s weren't all that imaginative and in my case I ran into a situation where 3 different men, with exactly the same Given and Surnames all lived in the same town at the same time. They were not related in any way, they just had rather ordinary, common names. To make it harder two of their wives were Sarah, and 2 each of their children were William and Joseph! No imagination!
Only that I remembered mentioned "when they ran the bakery in Maitland" allowed me to trace any further. The census of that time listed the 3 as 'Farm Labourer' 'Butcher' 'indecipherable'... easy! I knew he was never down at heel enough to be a labourer, nor was he a butcher so... further research turned up other evidence that coincided with what we knew of his history so it was the right choice. My GtGM was 'married' to the right man in the chart.
Think about the family stuff you know that you never bothered to mention to your kids, write down any little bits of trivia about the long gone rels. If no one cares then it's no loss, but if someone does, it can be pure gold to a future researcher.