10 years ago, I was in a car accident and I wasn’t in any condition to make any decisions for the first several days after the trauma. I was married for 2 months and suddenly my husband had to make big decisions for me. I was in immense pain and too confused from being heavily medicated to understand much after arriving at the hospital. My husband had to weigh the pros and cons for numerous decisions in short order. One of those decisions was whether I should undergo a surgery that could stabilized my spine quickly, but had high risk of complications, including paralysis. I’ve recovered now and my husband humbly downplays the huge responsibility he had, but the incident made me realise that talking about inevitable life events is important if we don’t want our loved ones (and ourselves) to be caught off-guard. That it isn’t being pessimistic, just simply being prepared.
– By Siew Li, age 34