God, I hate to ask this…


Recent conversations with the oncologist have been replete with phrases like ‘stage 4’,metastasis’ and unappealing statistics applied to survival rates. While my real and financial affairs are well settled I am most perplexed with how to approach this large pile of audio stuff e.g. 3 secondary systems in addition to the primary one, several thousand lp’s, a similar number of CD’s/SACD’s, a closet full of cable etc. I am utterly confident that I am not alone in this. While I am comfortable that my wife will love and care for my dog I am less confident that the Avantgardes will elicit such emotional investment. Although my immediate inclination is to cling desperately to these treasured objects it seems patently unfeeling to expect someone else to deal with all of this. My wife will have enough to do. I could just divest myself of much of it and depend on the collection of headphones that I began to amass during the first illness. I really don’t want to do this. I would also like to pre-bequeath much of it to friends assuming that they wanted it but all of them have been adamant in their refusal to discuss this with me and probably will remain so until the 11th hour. As childlike as it seems, I am emotionally invested in these fruits of a lifelong passion and want them to end up where they will be respected and loved . This seems to be a juncture that we will all come to. I would be grateful to hear the contemplations that all you have had in this, admittedly, sobering matter. 
To all of you, good cheer and good health.

 

williamjohnston

Showing 1 response by jeff333

My father was given <2 years to live (CLL), that was 20+ years ago he is now 78 and in good health, still occasionally does treatments.  Doctors had to keep amending the outlook and eventually admitted "who knows" because of constant advances in treatment.

To answer your question, if you have an estate plan which you probably do, I don't think it would be hard to specify an executor of the equipment, say the owner of a nearby high-end gear dealer you trust.  They would at least know what the stuff is and could oversee liquidation of the gear, not to get the most money out of it, but to find new homes where it would be appreciated.

Better yet, maybe Audiogon could have an "estate sale" category, and you could specify some portion of the proceeds to your favorite charity or disease research effort in your honor.

It's funny, some of the equipment me and my friends have is so high-end or specialized that we sometimes say, "they will bury you with this", because of the unlikelihood of it being surpassed any time soon.

-J