I wish you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving and thank you very much for following my column over the years. In the spirit of this week’s holiday, allow me to list some of the things that I am grateful for:
I’m grateful for this column – I appreciate Lorin Arundel & Ken Rasi and all of the good folks at the Island Sun Newspaper as well as my faithful readers for allowing me to bring you this estate planning column. I will say that it is sometimes a challenge to come up with interesting topics on a weekly basis for nine years straight. Estate planning isn’t the most entertaining of subjects by itself. But I’ve received a lot of positive feedback along with appreciation from many who’ve told me they understand the concepts that I’ve tried to highlight over the years. I thank all of you for your continued support;
I’m grateful that I’m alive and well – Sounds trite to say that, but I almost died in a terrible bicycling accident five years ago. As some of you know I am an avid road cyclist. On a July afternoon in 2004 a car cut me off near the Siesta Key subdivision as I was heading north on the Summerlin Road bike path. The helmet that I wear saved my life, yet I had four skull fractures and problems with my neck and spine. The accident resulted in a four day ICU stay at Lee Memorial Trauma Center’s ICU and eventually required neurosurgery to correct. Today I have screws and a pin holding a cadaver bone in place in my neck. I’m still on the bike – and doing well. I am grateful for those motorists who are considerate of us cyclists and beg the rest of you to please watch out for bicyclists both on the bike paths and on the road. Road cycling at speeds exceeding 20 mph on some bike paths is downright dangerous hence the need to be on the road itself – so please be considerate;
I’m grateful to live in Southwest Florida - I grew up in Indianapolis but have lived in Florida for thirty years. Our area of the country is among the best to live. We have great weather, beaches, boating, recreation – you name it. The people here are kind and down to earth. While our summers are hot – they’re not unbearable – and therefore you can enjoy the outdoors all year round. One of my good friends from Chicago visited not too long ago and I took him out to dinner. We travelled to a waterfront restaurant via boat instead of the car. He saw dolphins jumping and a wonderful sunset that evening. He couldn’t believe that we can do this anytime we want. It made me proud and happy to live here.
I’m grateful for my career – I truly enjoy what I do for a living. My firm’s been established in this community for several generations dating back to 1924. My law partners and I get along very well – it’s more like a family than a firm – we’ve watched each other’s children all grow up. We have a loyal and hard working staff – some have been with us more than thirty years! My clients are second to none – a bunch of friendly, warm and sincere people who have interesting backgrounds and life experiences. I’ve learned so very much from many of my clients. One, for example, gave me the idea to have “Daddy-Daughter” nights – where I enjoy having a private dinner with each one of my daughters individually. We do this about once a month. It’s nice bonding time to have with each of them – one on one. I might not have thought of that idea without the suggestion of Paul Flynn, who was an editor of the News-Press and was instrumental in the early days of USA Today – and later in life ran the Southwest Florida Community Foundation. Paul gave me the idea based upon his own experience with his own daughters while they were growing up. Sadly, Paul passed away last year, but a little bit of Paul lives on in my family through his good suggestion.
Finally, I’m thankful for my family – I have a loving, devoted, smart – and might I add – very patient wife (she needs a LOT of patience to be married to me!) who has put up with me for over twenty years. We started out with nothing and over a hundred thousand dollars of student loan debt between us. It seems, though, that our adventure has just begun. We have three daughters who we couldn’t be more proud of. Our extended family gives us much love and emotional support. My wife’s 96 year old grandmother will join us for Thanksgiving dinner, as will all of Patti’s and my parents. It is a blessing that all four will be together for another year, as my mother almost died of leukemia and survived a bone marrow transplant that cured her disease. Unlike a lot of guys who complain about their in-laws – I feel fortunate to have mine. My mother-in-law is one of the sweetest, most generous persons that you would ever meet. Our siblings and cousins help celebrate major family events. The only gripe I have is that I wish we saw each other more often.
In closing, I wish you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving. I’ll be back to reporting on estate planning topics next week.
©2009 Craig R. Hersch