A gift of love.

Jeanne was a pioneer in offering service to conservators, successor trustees, or executors with their paperwork and physical estate management duties, while clients maintain their fiduciary roles and responsibilities. As an Emerita, Jeanne is no longer offering hands on assistance, but has provided links to NAPO for you to have access to excellent professional organizers who can assist you.

She has always enjoyed sharing her unique perspectives and solutions - to understand and assist clients overcome procrastination and preparation anxiety, to get their affairs in order.

These same skill sets enhance the organizational abilities of any professional, leading to increased effectiveness, reduced stress, and setting of personal boundaries — to find and maintain a balance between their work and personal lives.

Jeanne has been a member of Faithful Organizers since the 1960s’.

Jeanne is a Past President of the Northern California Chapter of the National Speakers Association and the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals. She served on the Board of the Peninsula Estate Planning Council and on the Estate Planning Council for the El Camino Hospital Foundation.

THOUGHTS FROM JEANNE …

Spiritual Issues

We all have been taught some type of spiritual belief system. It may play a major or a minor part in our lives. However, I've observed that we reach into the core of these spiritual beliefs for support when crises occur and circumstances are beyond our control. I encourage you not to wait until the last moments of life to address these issues, but to take this journey soon. When life crises or a death occurs, you will have already found the source of the peace and faith needed to sustain you.

I don't think it's possible to really consider dying without facing the following questions. They are perhaps the most important issues to resolve. The answers will have a direct bearing on the way you live, the way you die, and the way you prepare your family for your death.

• Am I afraid of death, and if so, why?

• Can I have peace about dying?

• What about my spirit and soul?

• What do I believe about life after death?

• Does that belief bring me comfort and hope?

• How can I know that what I believe is true?

I can't answer these questions for you, but I can share what I have learned.

The following is my personal journey.
I offer it as my gift to you, as it was indeed, a gift to me.

A Personal Journey

The evening of January 24, 1976, my husband Dave asked me to spend some time with him reviewing a list he had created for me. He was due to have minor hernia repair surgery the following morning, and wanted me totally prepared on the outside chance that he did not survive the operation. The list included a review of our financial assets, life and health insurance issues, who to call at work, what he wanted for our children (Amy was 7 months old and Robb was almost 3), that he wanted to be cremated, and wanted me to remarry. This was a rather strange and all-inclusive list, but as an Engineer, he was a detail person!

Afterwards, he left to take our tax records to the accountant and was to have coffee with a friend, so I fed the baby and went to bed. About 9:30 P.M. I awoke thinking I had heard the car door, but went back to sleep. At midnight the doorbell rang, and I thought he had left his house keys at home. But that was not the case . . .

When I recognized the coroner through the front door window, I knew in my innermost being, that Dave was dead. When I heard the words that he had been killed by a drunk driver at 9:30 P.M. I experienced pain and fear physically, as if a knife was embedded in my stomach. And for me, the old adage of “There are no atheists in foxholes” came true. I turned to the only source I could think of, the Christian faith of my childhood, with a simple prayer of “Help!”

I didn't understand, but I accepted the peace
offered in the midst of the cyclone of emotions.

Hindsight is always 20/20, and looking back I can see how all our needs were met in real, practical ways:

• A few months earlier, a pastor and his family moved into the house next door. Gary and Loretta Fraley opened their home to me and were there to listen, answer my difficult spiritual questions and understand my fears and pain.

• I felt as if we had an umbrella covering over our tiny family to protect us, as we were introduced to the right attorney, accountant and investment advisor, etc.

• It soon became evident that it was best to move closer to my parents and my work. I bought and sold houses within a week. The woman who purchased our home had also lost her husband in a car accident and she had three small children. Seventeen friends moved us, and when I walked into the new home, it was set up as if we had lived there for months! We were only two blocks from my parents, who walked solidly beside me through my transitions. I was then close by and available for them during their terminal illnesses.

• My situation made others aware of their fragile humanity and they began to talk to their spouses and families about death. Others began to reorder their priorities in life and make positive changes. I began to see some positive things happening in response to our tragedy.

• I found areas of strength within myself that I had never known existed. Or perhaps they were simply gifts at the time I needed them. I discovered a new self-confidence in who I was as an individual and what I could accomplish. And only after learning to becoming content with being a single parent did my high school sweetheart reappear in my life. I was then free to follow Dave’s wishes and remarry.

• A few years later, our family experienced a five-year siege of loss. My father died in 1987, my best friend in 1988, my mother in l989, two sisters-in-law in 1990 and my father-in-law in 1991. As the “experienced” one, it became my job to handle the affairs of three of these loved ones. Others then began asking me for help with their situations.

• In 1992, the concept of Exit Stage Right, LLC was given to my husband Gene, and I established the business with the first edition of this book.

• I've learned that we are prepared for our future, as our future opportunities are prepared for us.
And to step out in faith to be Open, Willing and Available for the adventures ahead!

My trust and faith have grown stronger over the years as I have
experienced God's grace and blessings on a daily basis.

I wish that for you!
Jeanne K. Smith