Preparing for “The Last Goodbye”

Ray Martin’s “The Last Goodbye” (a three part series) has recently aired on SBS and provides a fascinating exploration of various aspects of preparing for and processing death.

This is a topic of growing relevance in Australia. With our aging population, Ray reveals that our nation is rapidly approaching a period academics are referring to as “peak death”. The next decade will see more deaths than at any other time in Australia’s history.

Statistically most deaths in Australia occur in the 65 years plus age demographic, with the average age being 83.

However, death for some arrives much earlier.

In Episode 1 of the series, Ray interviews 37 year old Kraki (who is terminally ill and has met the strict criteria to qualify for voluntary assisted dying) to discuss the challenges he and his family members are facing together and the ways in which Kraki is choosing to prepare for his “last goodbye”. Kraki’s preparation for death includes meticulous planning of his funeral ceremony which will follow the Viking tradition, honouring his life’s passion for Viking history and culture.

Ray also investigates a variety of other cultural and religious practices that arise in Australia’s multicultural community in relation to preparing for and accepting death as a part of life.

Ray describes Aussies as being typically “death minimalists” who want their funeral arrangements to be simple. That being said, there are Aussies who have put in place relatively expensive and complex arrangements, including utilising a facility in the outback which caters to those wishing to be cryogenically frozen after death, hoping in due course to return to life, if and when future scientific developments are able to achieve this.
What becomes very apparent through the course of Episode 1 is that there is no “one size fits all” approach to preparing for death.

Over the course of decades assisting our clients to make wills and otherwise arrange their affairs in preparation for any loss of capacity and eventual death, we can attest to there being a myriad of individual wishes regarding end of life arrangements.

What Ray seeks to highlight is the desirability of taking the time to personally consider the various aspects of planning for the end of one’s life, making choices that align with one’s personal and cultural and/or spiritual values and discussing those choices with loved ones.

Investing time to make some key end-of-life decisions in advance should ensure that your wishes are fulfilled and is likely to ease the decision-making burden for your attorneys and executors (bearing in mind that if you have appointed one or more of your loved ones to act in these roles, they will be personally impacted by grief when the time comes for them to ensure that arrangements are implemented).

Queensland clients have the opportunity to record relevant “views, wishes and preferences” in their Enduring Power of Attorney and/or their Advance Health Directive documents. These may include details of cultural, religious or spiritual values, rituals or beliefs to be considered in their health care and details of what would be important and comforting for them when nearing death, as well as identifying the people they would particularly wish to have (or not have) present in their final moments.

Recording relevant views, wishes and preferences in these documents may assist attorneys when making personal and health decisions on behalf of a principal who is no longer able to make such decisions on their own behalf.

When death occurs, the role of an attorney comes to an end and the appointed executor(s) are obligated to attend to implementing funeral arrangements.

Providing directions and guidance to one’s executor can greatly assist them with the discharging of these responsibilities.

To this end, we have recently collated an extensive “Funeral Wishes Checklist” to assist our clients with creating their own customised record of relevant arrangements and views, wishes and preferences to apply post death.

Our “Executor’s Dossier” is another resource available to our clients to assist with collating important information to streamline the executor’s task of administering their estate.

“The Last Goodbye” explores territory that might otherwise be quite confronting in a thoughtful and engaging way. The inherent sadness of the subject is tempered with gentle humour and interesting philosophical observations offered by Ray and his numerous guests.

In our next post, we will discuss some of the unfortunate circumstances where a failure to leave clear wishes has resulted in litigation for those left behind, as well as commenting on Episode 2 of “The Last Goodbye”.

We commend it as worthwhile viewing and if it inspires you to implement your own planning (or to update previous plans) for end of life care and funeral arrangements, we would be pleased to assist you.

By Rachael Ryan & Kate Donnan