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Estate Planning Is A Matter Of Will
35th Annual Fall Fundraiseie SU1
I
n many old movies, we have heard,
Famous entertainers have
at the reading of a will, the line,
had some interesting bequests
"Being of sound mind, I hereby
also. Recording artists Janis
bequeath ..."
Joplin (died 1970) wrote a will that set
When looking at Internet lists of odd
aside $2,500 for a wake party for when
bequests, I began to wonder how sound
she passed. (Is buying a memory all that
the mind was that made the stipula-
important?)
tions.
Comedian and actor Jack Benny (died
Consider these.
1974) established a lasting memory
for the love of his life, his wife. His will
Historical figures often pique our
fancy because we feel they will have lots
directed that a single long-stemmed
of goods to share. Napolean Bonaparte
rose was to be delivered to her every day
died in 1821 and his will
for the rest of her life.
Magician Harry Houdini
directed that his head be shaved
and his hair distributed among
(died 1926) left in his will 10
his friends. (Hair today; gone
words. He stated that his wife
tomorrow).
should hold a seance every
Halloween following his death
The writer Robert Louis
and that he would communi-
Stevenson passed away in 1894
and left an unusual gift for his
cate with her through those
friend Annie Ide. She had felt
words. She held the seances for
cheated of a birthday since
10 years, stopping when he did
Sy Ma nello
hers fell on Christmas Day so
not
make his presence known.
Editori al
(An inspiration for the cell
Stevenson left her his birthday
Assista nt
of Nov. 13.
phone ad, "Can you hear me
now?")
In the 19th century, a tanner from
Vermont, John Porter Bowman, lost his
wife and two daughters and believed
that upon his death the family would be
reincarnated together. Before he died
in 1891, he set up a $50,000 trust fund
to maintain his 21-room mansion and
have a full dinner prepared nightly in
the event the Bowman clan came back
to life on empty stomachs.
Talk about a "final frontier" — Star
Trek creator Gene Roddenberry (died
1991) directed in his will that his ashes
be launched into space in a capsule car-
ried by a rocket. The capsule eventually
disintegrated into the atmosphere.
My personal favorite is the will left
by Francois Rabelais (died 1553) who
wrote, "I owe much; I have nothing; I
give the rest to the poor:' Well, at least
they didn't have to worry about estate
taxes. *
Amid The Gunfire In Beersheva, A Heroic Effort To Save Lives
TUESDAY 11.17.15
7:30 PM
EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT
A NIGHT OF COMEDY
The Oct. 18 terrorist shooting in
Beersheva left a 19-year-old soldier and
an Eritrean migrant dead, and resulted
in 11 serious gunshot injuries. Oren
Wacht, a 40-year-old volunteer Magen
David Adorn paramedic, was first on
the scene, arriving on an MDA Mobile
Intensive Care Unit Medicycle spon-
sored by a donor through the Dr. John
J. Mames Chapter-Michigan Region of
the American Friends of Magen David
Adorn. He provided the following account
of what transpired:
I
www.jarc.org
DENNIS MILLER
commentary
had just come home from teaching
emergency medicine at Ben-Gurion
University when the call came in:
A terrorist was shooting at the nearby
Central Bus Station in Beersheva. I and
another volunteer
MDA paramedic,
— Rotem Tabibian,
both of us riding
Medicycles, were there
in a minute.
■
The entrance to the
station was blocked
with traffic and people
Oren Wacht
and commotion, but
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we were able to maneuver through the
crowd on our Medicycles. We drove
directly into the station. There was a lot
of shooting. We didn't know who was
shooting — and I didn't want to venture
to find out — but I had to take cover.
I had time to radio MDA dispatch to
provide them with a snapshot of what
was happening on the ground so that
they could allocate the appropriate
number of ambulances to the scene.
Then, Rotem and I immediately started
treating the injured.
While there's an element of danger
in going to the scene of a terror attack,
our willingness to treat the wounded in
a potentially unsafe situation can often
make the difference between a person
being stabilized and eventually recov-
ering and a person bleeding to death
at the scene. That's something we're
acutely aware of when we receive calls
like this. Certainly, it crossed my mind
when I was riding there — that and my
thought that I hope I don't know any-
body injured in the attack.
continued on page 8
strolling dinner and cocktails
catered by quality kosher catering
Help enrich lives
and erase barriers for
people with disabilities.
FOR MORE INFO 248.538.6611
www.jarc.org
1959030
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