In the front page of the Toronto Star, Saturday, December , 8, 2007, a headline reads, ” Family Feuds Over Artist’s Dying Wishes”. The famous aboriginal artist Norval Morisseau did not state where he wanted to be buried, and there is a dispute between his seven surviving children, a brother and a man who became the artist’s ” surrogate son”. The man who considers himself to be Morrisey’s adopted son made arrangements for him to be buried in Toronto, the brother says he was told by the artist that he wanted his ashes spread over Lake Nipigon, and the children want their father to be buried next to their mother in a northern Ontario native reserve. It is unclear whether Morisseau had a will and this sad and painful situation could have been avoided if Morisseau had made arrangements before his death. He had been suffering for many years with Parkinson’s disease and was 75 when he died. Was he not aware of the terrible situation his family would be plunged into by his lack of decision? Was he so overcome with fear of death that any action towards organizing his affairs was paralyzing?

I am reminded of the story told to me by participants who attended one of my talks. The man’s father had died a year earlier with an out of date will so that some of the grandchildren born afterwards, were not included as beneficiaries, an array of investments in many American and Canadian financial institutions, etc. It took this man and his sister, months and months of needless research as they worked their way through mounds of paper, to uncover their father’s assets. Such a horrifying and needless waste of time and the cause of so much frustration and anger by his children.