The Few. The Proud. The Morons.

"Supposing a tree fell down, Pooh, when we were underneath it?" 

Have you outlined your contingency plan yet, or perhaps carved it in stone, chopped off the precious piece, made several duplicates and put them in a safe place? No? Me neither, I realized, when put to the test. Compared to the most diligent strategists, I'm a moron and not a major in mitigation.

For someone who has never entertained illusions of immortality, I'm alarmingly underinsured on many levels. There are wishes I've made known to my family. Certain things I keep repeating to and reminding my loved ones of so they don't have to second-guess or, worse still, never hear me say them. Wouldn't want my last word or thought to be "D'oh!" Then there are things I hadn't even thought about. 

Hubby's sister called asking if we could meet without the kids, theirs or ours. She and her husband wanted to talk to us about something. She sounded so serious we thought it had to be something awful, but she refused to say more over the phone. After several days of sweaty-palmed hand-wringing, a sigh of relief, but we still needed a moment to digest.

What they wanted to know was this: If anything ever happened to them, meaning if they both died in some freaky or plain unlucky accident, would we raise their children? They wanted us to be very sure of our answer because they would then make it clear to both set of grandparents this is their express wish.

I could be elected President of the Universe and it would be nothing compared to their vote of confidence. We, who had never considered what would happen to our wee ones if anything ever happened to us. We, the Los Dumbos of crisis management, and still they were willing to trust us with the lives and future of their children. Our answer? A resounding "Yes."

You can dread. You can hope. Think somewhere a clock is ticking or know every beat of your heart. Different endgame, same result. Life goes on.  

"'Supposing it didn't,' said Pooh. After careful thought Piglet was comforted by this."
A. A. Milne