Happily Hereafter: #Prep4theInevitable, part 1 of 2

This is a double two-day workshop. To register for this double workshop, please register on part 1 of 2.

What’s the difference between a will and an advanced directive? Which is better: burial or cremation? What is the role of an executor anyway?

I know, I hear you: “I’m young and invincible! Why should I be thinking about death and dying, let alone talking about it?” It’s a fair question, but end of life planning actually isn’t just about you.

Do you know what type of care your parents or grandparents or other loved ones want (or don’t want) if they were to become seriously ill and are unable to speak for themselves? Have you ever considered what you might have to navigate as a next-of-kin to someone in a compromised physical situation? Or have you ever wondered what’s going to happen to all the stuff when someone close to you dies?

This mini-course is meant to give people–"as early as possible–"a language about a subject that has been made somewhat invisible and relatively uncomfortable: Death and dying. But it will also give you the tools to help you understand what you might need to know about your loved ones’ plans and wishes, how to start those fraught conversations, and how to convey to your loved ones how their tackling end of life planning will bring you greater peace of mind. It also may help you clarify your own values-based wishes."

"While we will discuss some pretty heavy issues, we will aim to keep things as light as possible by creating a judgement-free space for talking about everything from your ideal funeral playlist to how to talk about who's gonna get grandma's jewelry!

In our time together, through large discussions and small group break-outs we will explore the following topics:
- Getting real, getting comfortable, and getting real comfortable with death and dying
- Managing relationships while making big life (and death) decisions
- The nuts and bolts of end of life planning

Participants will leave with a set of conversation prompts and planning checklists and a sense of priority areas for ongoing self-reflection and conversation with loved ones."

Leslie Jennings Rowley has held a number of administrative roles in her 16 years at Princeton, most recently serving as Assistant Director of the Kahneman-Treisman Center for Behavioral Science & Public Policy before joining the Office of Advancement in a strategy and production role. She holds a PhD in psychology and is the founder of Hereafter Partners, an organization devoted to providing resources to make the end of life process less worrisome and conversations about death, dying, and aging more normalized in today’s society. “Helping my father navigate the end stage of his life six years ago was life-changing for me,” she says. “And watching my husband navigate his executorship role for his mother’s estate woke me up to a big reality: Many of us even in mid-life are underprepared for the eventuality of our loved ones’ deaths–"not to mention our own. Now I’ve taken on the personal mission of trying to design a set of resources for younger people and a mechanism for starting this conversation with those of us caught between parents, siblings, and our own inner voices of fear and confusion.”

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