In the Event of a Death Abroad – Keeps documents on netbook

I have occasionally wondered what would happen if my husband, Ed, or I should die while traveling in a foreign country. On a recent cruise, the unfortunate reality of this question hit us when two passengers died. Staff told us they would help each surviving spouse get in touch with the American Embassy, but they had no idea how much help the embassy would be.

Adding to the advice shared by subscribers in the May 2016 issue (page 39), I wanted to share what Ed and I have done to try to offset the difficulties of such an emergency situation while traveling.

We travel with a netbook, which provides an ideal way to store documents. We decided a while ago to scan all of our important documents: living will, durable power of attorney for financial decisions, and durable power of attorney for health care. We even included a personal letter stating that, in the event of our deaths, we wish to be cremated.

In the July 2015 issue of ITN, the editor’s “Boarding Pass” column referenced the February 2005 article “Coping with the Red Tape of an Overseas Death” by Betty Patterson. After finding and reading that article in ITN’s online archives, we added a scanned copy of our marriage certificate to our netbook. 

Also included are scanned copies of our passports and credit cards and a complete list of all of our doctors as well as the medications we’re taking. 

We have encrypted this entire folder and given the password to our daughter. These documents are also saved in a folder on a flash drive we carry with us.

While we can never be 100% sure that the computer in a particular country will accept these documents, at least we’ve tried.

NANCY J. NORBERG
Mt. Pleasant, SC