Your Travel Plans
Traval, 'journey to distant places or foreign lands' (Anglo-Norman, 13th c.);
Plan, 'drawing showing the layout of a building' (French, 16th c.)
Now that I've browsed the travel guide, should I make travel plans?
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Legal folks advise every adult to have a basic travel plan at all times, regardless of when you think you'll depart and what you want to visit and do later. You could depart today - especially if you're climbing ladders and doing dumb things - or not for many decades.
This is where architecture takes a back seat and lets law, theology, and sociology take the lead. The three sections below are just a starter; you'll need other sources elsewhere. (This isn't to demean architecture. Architectural history is filled with built legal, theological, and social ideas: by lawyers, theologians, and sociologists collaborating with architects on projects. But those are subjects for another time. You have different priorities right now.)
Legal Travel Plans
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While you're still here, you can record your wishes and make them available to your delegate. Online resources from the Legal Information Society of Nova Scotia make this easy. LISNS is a charitable non-profit organization, funded by Department of Justice Canada, Nova Scotia Department of Justice, and Law Foundation of Nova Scotia. It offers free online advice on wills and estates and some handy estate planning apps. The Confederacy of Mainland Mi'kmaq provides equivalent information for Nova Scotia Mi'kmaq.
Three Situations, Four Documents
Situation 1: If you fall off a ladder at your Halifax house and become temporarily incapacitated, you'd want this document available right away:
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personal directive (to indicate what kinds of personal care and health care you want) (info here; extra info here; app here)
You can use the app to make your personal directive, then give a copy to your delegate or keep it in a safe place that your delegate can access easily. To help activate your personal directive, you can keep a card in your wallet, such as this one from LISNS.
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Situation 2: If you're alive but incapacitated for more than a few days, you'd want this document available:
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power of attorney (to name someone to look after your finances and property until you've returned) (info here; extra info here; app here)
You can use the app to make your power of attorney, then keep it in a safe place that your delegate (now called an attorney) can access easily.
Situation 3: If you die, you'd want these two documents available:
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funeral plan (to record your wishes; info here; Community Legal Education Association in Winnipeg offers My Funeral Plan, a free, simple guide)
You can prepare instructions, then keep them in a safe place that your delegate (now called an executor) can access easily. Despite the document name, this covers not just funerals but also dispositions. If you want to pay for everything in advance, that's up to you. Your funeral plan should not be placed in your will, which won't be read until later.
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will (to name your executor and distribute your physical and financial assets) (info here; extra info here; app here)
You can use the app to make a basic will, ask a lawyer to review it, then keep it in a safe place that your delegate (now called an executor) can access easily. Your will eventually will become a public document. Don't forget your digital assets on electronic devices and the Internet (e-mail accounts, social media accounts, commercial accounts, etc.). You can add a digital asset clause to your will to specify what to do with them and indicate where access information (account numbers and passwords) is located.
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Theological Travel Plans
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This website is mainly about the trajectory of your body and the cultural practices we've constructed around that. It doesn't touch on theological ideas about where the rest of you goes: afterlife, reincarnation, unknown, or nowhere. If you belong to a religious group, it may provide an answer, plus some tips on how to prepare for your trip so that you don't end up in the wrong place. If you're a non-religious individual, you can skip to the next question.
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Social Travel Plans
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freepik.com
Wes Hicks / Unsplash
This website, "After You Die in Halifax," is written largely in second person singular, with you as the focus. You're also woven into a social fabric with family and friends. When you die, other people's memories of you live on, but you don't. That's awkward. Dealing with grief is a whole other subject that sociology is better prepared to address.
Meanwhile, architecture has an ongoing interest in things you leave behind. Private keepsakes are tangible reminders of your earlier presence: hair, fingerprints, clothing, a favourite chair, writings, drawings, crafts, photographs, and recordings. Memories of your smells, sounds, hugs, and gestures are less tangible but probably deeper.
You'll also leave behind public evidence in government records, census data, archives, and online data trails. Your legacy may continue in things you made: books, songs, companies, or recipes. If you want to consolidate or polish your public legacy, you could write your obituary, erect a stone marker, create a scholarship in your name, or make a newsworthy donation to charity. If others do this later on your behalf, that's even better.
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Have a good trip! Send postcards.