Published: September 02, 2007 09:46 am         

Kathy Gibbons: Where there's a drawer, there's a will

We're in the car, and daughter opens the glove box to look for a straw.

She doesn't find a straw, but she does come across an old envelope with writing on the back of it, reads it and extends it toward me, saying, "What is THIS?"

Uh-oh. Flying somewhere a few months ago, I had parked at the airport and was halfway to the terminal when I remembered something I'd forgotten to do. Dashing back to the car, I found a used envelope and on the back of it scrawled my Last Will and Testament.

See, I don't have a will. And I am not afraid to fly, necessarily -- in fact, I really love it if I don't dwell on the fact that all it would take is one false move to be back on the ground, in seconds, and not in the same form as when we started. But before I get on a plane I get into this zone where I feel like I'm handing everything over to God -- or the pilot, anyway. And it's the only time I think about how I need to have a will.

It happened the first time when the kids were little and we were going to Florida for a first getaway by air without children. At that time, there was another layer of concern in that if both their dad and I died, who would get the kids? I knew who I didn't want getting them and decided I better put that in writing. I even had a friend witness it, tucking the manila envelope in the bottom of a drawer.

I'd forgotten all about it until moving last year, when I found it, along with individual letters I'd written to each of the kids then telling them how much I loved them and would be with them in spirit always. Just in case.

But I kept meaning to have a will made. I even bought a certificate to have one done during an auction-fundraiser for someone who had cancer, but never followed up and used it.

I just don't think about writing a will until I think I'm facing death and want to be sure my wishes to have everything go to the kids are known. And that is on the way out the door to catch a plane, or into an airport. Then I forget about it.

The up side of this system is that you can tailor them to the circumstances. Traveling with my daughter by plane, I write a will that leaves everything to her brother, provided neither of us survives, but if I don't and she does, then they share. Traveling alone, I draft one that divides everything between them. I'll find these wills later -- on notepaper, or on the back of a recipe -- in the glove box, in a kitchen drawer, and feel silly. Until the next time I have to get on a plane.

Talking about this with a lawyer friend recently, I learned that without witnesses, these wills on the fly are probably not valid. He also said that if I die without a will, everything would go to the kids anyway -- it just might take a little longer.

I should just bite the bullet and have one done. It would be nice to take writing a will off my pre-flight checklist.

On the other hand, maybe now, writing this, I've got all of the witnesses I need.