Lessons We've Learned
The Things Our Children Don't Know About Us
Larry Vest3 min read
One day Rita and I realized something that surprised us.
We knew who our doctors were.
We knew which pharmacy filled our prescriptions.
We knew the medications we took every day.
We knew our allergies.
We knew we were organ donors.
But our children didn't.
Not because we'd kept it from them.
We'd simply never put it all in one place.
Life has a funny way of doing that.
We carry thousands of little pieces of information in our heads. We know them so well that we assume everyone else knows them too.
They don't.
One afternoon I asked myself a simple question.
If something happened to me today, how long would it take one of my children to answer the questions I answer without thinking?
Who is Dad's primary physician?
Which cardiologist does he see?
What pharmacy does he use?
What medications does he take?
Does he have any allergies?
Is he an organ donor?
Those aren't dramatic questions.
They're ordinary questions.
Until suddenly they're not.
Sometimes those questions are asked in a doctor's office while someone is filling out paperwork.
Sometimes they're asked in an emergency room.
Sometimes they're asked by an adult child trying to help.
Sometimes they're asked when you're no longer able to answer them yourself.
That's when ordinary information becomes incredibly important.
One of the most interesting conversations Rita and I ever had about this wasn't with a doctor.
It was with our daughter.
She asked about our family's medical history.
Not because she was interested in genealogy.
Because someday that knowledge could help her children—and perhaps even their children.
That conversation changed the way I thought about preparation.
We don't just pass along our possessions.
We pass along knowledge.
Some of it is financial.
Some of it is legal.
Some of it is deeply personal.
And some of it—our doctors, medications, allergies, medical history, and even the simple fact that we're organ donors—may someday help the people we love make better decisions.
That's why we created My Health Book inside MyRegistr.
Not because we wanted another place to store information.
Because we wanted one trusted place where the people who matter most could find it when it mattered most.
To me, that's a very different idea.
This isn't about preparing for the worst.
It's about making life a little easier for the people you love.
Maybe that day never comes.
I hope it doesn't.
But if it does, I don't want my family searching through filing cabinets, old address books, sticky notes, or trying to remember which doctor I mentioned six months ago.
I want them to have clarity.
Because clarity is one of the greatest gifts we can leave the people we love.
One Small Step
One Small Step
Don't try to organize your entire medical life today.
Just begin.
Write down:
The name of your primary care physician.
The pharmacy you use most often.
One medication you take regularly.
That's it.
It will only take a few minutes.
But you've already made life a little easier for the people who may one day need that information most.
