A cautionary tale.

• Author: Aippersbach, Carole
• Position: Viewpoint

Once upon a time there was a family who went on a summer holiday. A father, a mother, two children, a dog, and some grandparents. It wasn't a fancy holiday--those are pretty expensive. It was just a nice little family vacation: everyone and everything packed into the minivan, driving to the next province over, just getting away to spend some time together. But they forgot one thing: the back-up plan.

Most of us have all kinds of back-up plans, covering many of the little things in our lives. Think about it: how many times have you found yourself saying "well, if that doesn't work, I'll just do this instead." However, despite the existence of all of those minor back-up plans, many of us fail to create the "big" back-up plan--the legal documents that plan for death and possible incapacity. Let's face it, no one wants to think about what happens if the thing that does not work out is your entire life. Who likes to think about death, or, worse yet, the possibility of being completely incapacitated for the rest of your natural life? Besides, what are the odds of something that horrible actually happening--especially if you are young and healthy? Right?

That is what the family thought, too. Or, better said, they just simply didn't think they'd ever need such a back-up plan ... not until they were older and closer to death. They were wrong. Despite all of the odds, on a clear and sunny July day, on a mostly deserted bit of highway, and for reasons that will never be known, the driver lost control of the vehicle. The result: a severely injured father, a severely injured child, a mother in what was, and still is, a permanent vegetative state, a dead dog, an insurance nightmare ... and an ugly, expensive three-year legal battle that left the whole family with irreparable scars. Not to mention a man who had to make a literally life-or-death decision, both on the day of the accident and every day since, for a wife whose wishes were not known to him.

Although it is true that no back-up in the world could have prevented the accident, or even some of the events after the accident, there are many things that could have ended up differently, had there been some legal documentation in place. For example, the fight over who got to make decisions for the wife/mother.

* Many people think that, in this kind of tragedy, a person's spouse automatically has decision-making authority. That is not the case. Health care professionals can sometimes turn to the spouse...