I just read very disturbing news about the victims of Japanese earthquake/tsunami. 30 kids waiting in school for their parents to pick up, a few days later, the parents still have not shown up. The students were sitting quietly in their classroom as a tsunami wiped out the town. Who will take care of them?
Japan Earthquake left kids without parents
Who will take care of your kids when you die?
This brought tears to our eyes, as well as an eye opening and a mind boggler of who would take care of our kids when we die. I can’t even imagine what it is like to be in their shoes, but the thought of “what if it happened to us?” came across my mind.
Looking tough and cheerful on the outside, but sensitive and vulnerable on the inside, I know exactly what my 7 year old would do if he were one of the Japanese kids in the situation. He would cry quietly and sit in a corner praying for our safety and hoping that he could go home soon, longing for mom and dad’s hugs and reassurance that everything would be OK. I can imagine that the Japanese kids are doing the same thing.
Do you have a will?
We hope and pray every day to be kept safe and protected wherever we go. Disasters happen inevitably, nobody can predict the future. The truth is, it is better to be safe than sorry.
In this post, I am not offering any advice. I am writing this post just as an avenue to scribble my thoughts. I am not a subject matter expert pertaining to last will, living will and other things related to them. I am far, far from being an expert; in fact, I am one of people in the US statistics who do not have a will for our assets and most importantly, our children. Without a last will, the court will make a decision for your assets, including your children. The state has a right to decide what to do with your assets and your minor aged children. Urgh. It is a scary thought.
I read that anyone over the age of 18 years old with a sound mind can make a will. I qualify. Alright, I am going to do more research on this topic and may be a follow up post?
Any thoughts and advice on this topic are welcome.
Veronica is a working mom who operates with a dash of technology, a pinch of positive mind, a dust of joy, and a chocolate bar. Veronica blogged for AkronOhioMoms from 2010-2012.
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8 thoughts on “Japan Tsunami & Earthquake: Kids lost parents, who will take care of them? Who would take care of your kids?”
I was searching the article regarding the orphans from the Earthquake in Japan. I appreciate your concern for the kids who lost their parents. Generally speaking Japanese don’t express our feeling as much as Westerners, so even children are trying to hold their emotion and not whimpering.
We cannot rely on Japanese government because it is not functioning, so local government and volunteer is working on this issue. I am involved with one organisation which was started on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/notes/tetsuji-yamashita/request-to-my-19-facebook-friends/122238547851634 I tought you might be interested in, so that you can see the orphans will be able to find home.
Thank you for your concern for the children in Japan.
Best regards,
Sachi Hirayama Darwin, Australia
caleb says:
I heard that there’s a video footage for this news, does anyone know where can i find it?
Veronica–thanks for a great post. I can’t tell you how many of my friends with young kids – just like you and me – that haven’t done any of this planning. It’s SO critically important! I agree w/ much of what momofmany says. My husband and I feel relief that things are planned out, our goals for our girls (schooling, daily needs, etc.) will be provided for with life insurance proceeds (we had a professional calculate all that for us), etc. The hardest thing for us was picking who we would want to raise our girls in our absence. I don’t think a “simple will” and Durable power of Attny for healthcare and finance are such a bad undertaking, though. A trust is a much bigger deal, but most of us don’t need that.
Ask Nike says, ” Just do it!” 🙂
momofmany says:
I wouldn’t advise anyone to create their own legal documents. Those generic forms are NOT conformed to state laws. The state of Ohio can (and has) thrown out wills, testaments, power of attorneys and living wills if it is not consturcted as the Ohio Revised Code has stated the document needs to be laid out.
I am a paralegal, and even though I created our documents I did have an attorney review them. I only got that far because I am a paralegal who worked at the firm. Please, please do not create your own end of life documents using forms 🙁
momofmany says:
You should have a will (not just for your assets as who they will go to, but also who will manage them, who monitors the money, who gives out the money, who gets the money). You also need a power of attorney for health care, in case you are incapacitated. You should also have a living will, it becomes affective only if you are unable to communicate your wishes, it was in response to Terry Shivo to ensure that you can decide wether or not you want life support if you are in a vegitative state. There are MANY wonderful attorneys in the Akron area! Seek one out for a free consultation. It is a HUGE undertaking, but well worth the peace of mind. Unless you are like me, and keep rethinking everything…even with the documents I wonder if I made the right decisions. And, we’ve gone back more than once to modify them. But, at least it’s there…just in case.
Karen says:
Visit the library! They have great free resources on te steps to take in creating a will and even have books with templates in them.
Just a begininng but a start is all you need.
Toni Alabakovski says:
We’ve had a will created for some time, actually what sparked us to do it was the fact that my husband starting selling and riding motorcycles. It’s not fun to think about or to do but I’m so glad it’s done. We had an attorney friend do it and he did it for $50, going through an attorney gave us peace of mind that it was done right. Just recently I realized we never made our last will and POA’s, and I want to get that done very soon too. We don’t have much right now but it was important to us to make sure we knew where the kids would go and that is what drove us to do it. I just had an uncle die unexpectantly in January with no will, 2 children and was a business owner, boy was it a mess and still it, and will be for probably many years.
Good luck! and just do it! You will be glad you did!
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Hello Velonica,
I was searching the article regarding the orphans from the Earthquake in Japan.
I appreciate your concern for the kids who lost their parents.
Generally speaking Japanese don’t express our feeling as much as Westerners, so even children are trying to hold their emotion and not whimpering.
We cannot rely on Japanese government because it is not functioning, so local government and volunteer is working on this issue. I am involved with one organisation which was started on Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/notes/tetsuji-yamashita/request-to-my-19-facebook-friends/122238547851634
I tought you might be interested in, so that you can see the orphans will be able to find home.
Thank you for your concern for the children in Japan.
Best regards,
Sachi Hirayama
Darwin, Australia
I heard that there’s a video footage for this news, does anyone know where can i find it?
Thank you all for sharing your experience and advice here. I am sure many readers appreciate them as much as I do.
I agree with many of you. It is not just who the kids would be raised by, but money management is another important aspect of the whole deal.
Veronica–thanks for a great post. I can’t tell you how many of my friends with young kids – just like you and me – that haven’t done any of this planning. It’s SO critically important! I agree w/ much of what momofmany says. My husband and I feel relief that things are planned out, our goals for our girls (schooling, daily needs, etc.) will be provided for with life insurance proceeds (we had a professional calculate all that for us), etc. The hardest thing for us was picking who we would want to raise our girls in our absence. I don’t think a “simple will” and Durable power of Attny for healthcare and finance are such a bad undertaking, though. A trust is a much bigger deal, but most of us don’t need that.
Ask Nike says, ” Just do it!” 🙂
I wouldn’t advise anyone to create their own legal documents. Those generic forms are NOT conformed to state laws. The state of Ohio can (and has) thrown out wills, testaments, power of attorneys and living wills if it is not consturcted as the Ohio Revised Code has stated the document needs to be laid out.
I am a paralegal, and even though I created our documents I did have an attorney review them. I only got that far because I am a paralegal who worked at the firm. Please, please do not create your own end of life documents using forms 🙁
You should have a will (not just for your assets as who they will go to, but also who will manage them, who monitors the money, who gives out the money, who gets the money). You also need a power of attorney for health care, in case you are incapacitated. You should also have a living will, it becomes affective only if you are unable to communicate your wishes, it was in response to Terry Shivo to ensure that you can decide wether or not you want life support if you are in a vegitative state. There are MANY wonderful attorneys in the Akron area! Seek one out for a free consultation. It is a HUGE undertaking, but well worth the peace of mind. Unless you are like me, and keep rethinking everything…even with the documents I wonder if I made the right decisions. And, we’ve gone back more than once to modify them. But, at least it’s there…just in case.
Visit the library! They have great free resources on te steps to take in creating a will and even have books with templates in them.
Just a begininng but a start is all you need.
We’ve had a will created for some time, actually what sparked us to do it was the fact that my husband starting selling and riding motorcycles. It’s not fun to think about or to do but I’m so glad it’s done. We had an attorney friend do it and he did it for $50, going through an attorney gave us peace of mind that it was done right. Just recently I realized we never made our last will and POA’s, and I want to get that done very soon too. We don’t have much right now but it was important to us to make sure we knew where the kids would go and that is what drove us to do it. I just had an uncle die unexpectantly in January with no will, 2 children and was a business owner, boy was it a mess and still it, and will be for probably many years.
Good luck! and just do it! You will be glad you did!