Kerry Eldred, who lives in Jacksonville, Florida, tested positive for Huntington’s disease in 2009. She shares how she’s taking steps to protect her future and ease the burden on her loved ones.
Transcript
What I plan on doing is what my dad did. And what my dad did before he died in 2023, after 10-plus years of battling with Huntington’s disease: He had a financial advisor, and he made sure that everything was taken care of regarding beneficiaries and inheritance to avoid probate.
And he did — probably the most important thing was to have power of attorney and medical surrogacy established before he was more symptomatic. Each of us — my mom had copies, I had copies, and then we always had spare copies with him.
Because if it was me, my mom, his sister, or something, because it showed all the people who could make decisions for him. His disease had progressed so much that he couldn’t talk or consent anymore.
So we always had to have those available because sometimes they’d ask for them. Like, I remember once taking my dad to the ER, and I had to provide the power of attorney to show the ER so that my dad could be treated.
He had fallen and had a big laceration on the back of his head, and it was terrible. It’s not funny — it’s just that it was so deep. My mom treated it, she cleaned the wound so well, and made this big bow. The ER physician offered her a job because she used to be a nurse, which is what helped her be a caregiver for my dad because of all her nurse training and experience.
But anyway, my dad doing all those documents — that’s what I plan on doing, but I have not done those yet. I learn all the time of different trusts or things that you can do to protect your assets.
I’m going to make it as easy as possible for my husband, and daughter, and surviving family.
I mean, I might plan my funeral just so that no one else has to — write my obituary. And if they don’t want to use it, then they can write their own obituary. Just like, “Here’s a binder of stuff. Here it is on USB or whatever they use in the future.”
