In the midst of life, there is death!

It may seem premature but I've been thinking of my own mortality recently. As far as I know, I am not dying. I recently celebrated my 64th birthday and with the exception of a few aches and pains, I seem to be in reasonable shape for my age. Indeed, my latest annual medical check-up confirms this. If the actuarial survival tables are to be believed and my family history is any guide, I have many more years left on this planet to irritate friends and family. But life is uncertain and, for a while now, I've had this nagging feeling that I should plan for my death. What's brought this on? I really don't know as I'm having a very good time at the moment and enjoying being alive. Maybe it is because so many people I have known and cared about have died in the last few years? Maybe it's a reaction to my recent birthday? Maybe I'm turning into a miserable old git? Whatever the reason, what am I going to do?
Jan and I have been pretty good at keeping our wills up-to-date over the years and have signed advance directives and Powers of Attorney for medical and finance matters. So we've already taken care of these things. But there is a whole stack of other stuff I think could be problematical in the wake of some kind of unexpected or traumatic death that concerns me. Would my family know how to cash in my pension? Would they know where all the bank and building society accounts were located? And all the passwords and security hurdles for those on-line? What about the credit cards and subscriptions. The list goes on. What would happen with my blog. e-mail accounts and my Facebook page if I died?
There will be surprises (but hopefully no embarassments!) if I die suddenly as I won’t be able to foresee all the issues but I am going to make time to provide my family with a complete list of accounts, contact numbers, and instructions about what they need to do in the aftermath of my demise. I'm even thinking of setting out a basic set of instructions about the funeral - I feel an irrational desire to ensure that no one would decide to include a Graham Kendrick song [shudder] as a final practical joke on me! In a strange way, I'm quite looking forward to doing it. It could be a very cathartic experience, not sad or depressing at all. However it turns out, it will be an exercise well worth the effort if it makes the tasks of those remaining a little easier.