You can be assured that if anything happened to CarolC, you would all be made aware. I know she's been here a long time, and has many many friends, and I would see to it that you were informed.

This thread did give me great pause, and not just because it's an issue of examining ones own mortality, but because it examines what others might want/think/feel about ones passing as well.

I had an acquaintance a long time ago. He was a very decent person, but he was a bit of a downer at times, though liked well enough when he was being chipper. Many times, folks would make excuses for not hanging out with him when he was acting depressed. Or, they simply didn't think about him at all. He hung himself. What really opened my eyes was the change in folks after his death (myself included). Suddenly, out of the woodwork we were all crying for his loss. But more, we had a great deal nice to say about him. And the things we found to say were all true. Things I am sure would have meant a lot to him when he was alive. Things I believe we all felt a great deal of remorse in having not said to him when he was there to hear. We all wished we had known he was so depressed so that we could have done something about it. I don't think any of us were being hypocritical. I think we meant it, but failed to realize it when he was still alive. In his case, it was by his own hand, but we can all be gone tomorrow with less warning even than his friends and family had with him. And even in the best of relationships where you don't really think there is anything left unsaid, there still seem to be regrets after the person is no longer there. "Why didn't I tell her I love her the last time I talked on the phone with her? All I said was "catch ya later!". "Why didn't I tell him more often how proud I was of him and for him?" "Why didn't I make more time for her?"

There really is no going back. Rather than leave a note for people after you're gone...at a time when the remorse sets in for what they were unable to say back to your words, why not say it now, while those you care for and those who care for you are still around to know that, for certain, there is no unfinished business? That for certain, no one thinks "I wish I could have just told him/her (blank) before he/she was gone. That way, all there is left to say when one is gone is "I've passed...I'll miss you". And all that's left for those you leave behind to say is "We'll miss you too."

Time for me to follow my own advice...