Why it's important to think about emergency and end-of-life planning

As difficult as it is to think about all the "what if" scenarios for your family...what if one of us gets sick, what if one of us gets injured, what if one of us dies...it's oh so much more difficult to have to figure out tons of logistics in the midst of an emergency or when you are overcome with grief and emotion.

How much easier it would be if all those logistics were just written down for you in a handy workbook!

If you're the one who is expected to handle everything, you'd know right where to find important files and documents, you'd have all the passwords you need, you can figure out what to do about the dog or the house alarm, you'd know what bills need to be paid and where the spare keys are...not to mention all the details that go into someone's medical care, legal obligations, and wishes for final arrangements.

We listed out over 150 things in the Caring Is Not Enough workbook that need to be dealt with in the event of a "what if" scenario, to make it easier for families to be prepared. We'd like to share several comments from people who have bought and used the workbook. We hope their stories will help you think about your own story.

My husband died suddenly a few years ago, and the only thing he had done was to name me as a beneficiary on his IRA. I am a cancer survivor, so I put together an advanced healthcare directive and provided formal instructions for the care of my minor children. I find your guidance helpful in completing my remaining tasks. It's so overwhelming to lose someone - I don't want my sons to have the headaches of the logistics of a loved one dying.

My husband and I are very lax and big procrastinators. Your book makes the work easier to present to my husband.

I am getting remarried and this book will make everything so much easier for our children.

After losing my mom and dad within two years, what a mess! I do not want my children to go through what we had to.

I'm going on 85 and my kids would go crazy looking for any of my records. Thank you for making me wake up.

I've been thinking about organizing my papers and making final arrangements. I'm only 52 years old, but my parents made their wishes known and were very organized. It really helped us when they died, it's such an emotional time anyway.

As a fellow nurse, I work in hospice care and every day I see how quickly death can create chaos for the living.

I just returned from 10 days of emptying and sorting through my in-law's home of 30 years. Pictures with no names or dates, checks from over 20 years ago, receipts for fine jewelry that nobody knows anything about. I am not putting my daughters through that.

Though my parents are alive, their march toward 90-years-old is quickening and I am finding it to be a great challenge to make sense of their financial situation while they are still around to answer my questions.

I am in a mess since my husband had a major stroke over a year ago and I was left in the dark about almost everything. He is 77 and I am 76 and in very bad health myself - I need all the help I can get.

When my mother passed away, my sister and I searched for three days before we found her will. I don't want my children to have to do that!

Last year, my 49-year-old healthy husband died suddenly of a heart attack. I have 4 children living at home and every day I tell myself I have to get things in order. I don't want them to go through what I am having to do.