Another Embarrassing Confession by Yours Truly

Kristen Marks

by Kristen Marks

Kristen Marks is a travel enthusiast, empty-nest mom to two young adult children, athlete, attorney, author, speaker, proud wife of almost three decades (to the same wonderful man!), and the founder of My Pink Lawyer®, Florida Estate & Legacy Planning attorneys. Kristen has been crafting professional estate plans for Floridians and their families for over 28 years.

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Annual girls trip of 3 generations

 

“What are you doing back so soon?,” my mom asked me.

 

“What do you mean? It’s almost 6 o’clock,” I replied.

 

“No, it’s not. It’s almost 5 o’clock.”

 

Huh? Jill and I looked at each other and then at the clock on my mom’s wall.

 

Yup, it sure did say 4:45.

 

Jill and I spent the weekend in Northern Virginia visiting my mom and dad. It was our annual Girls Weekend of three generations (my mom, my daughter, and myself).

 

Since my mom was working on Friday, we decided it would be a good day to visit my dad and stepmom, who live about an hour away.

 

I told them we’d be out there at 10:30am. That would give Jill time to sleep in.

 

I woke Jill up at her appointed time of 8:45am Friday morning.

 

“Mom, it’s only 7:45. Why are you waking me up?”

 

“No, honey, your phone is still set to Central time. It’s really 8:45.”

 

We were on the road 45 minutes later.

 

Gee, that’s weird. My mom’s car clock was an hour early. I change it to the correct time. Guess, she never changed it after the last time change, I thought.

 

We arrived at my dad’s house right on the dot at 10:30am.

 

My stepmom was still working outside and seemed pleasantly surprised to see us.

 

We chatted around the kitchen table catching up. When I went to the kitchen to refill my water glass, I noticed that their oven clock was also wrong, set an hour early. I didn’t think anything of it this time.

 

Jill, seeing the time, mentioned that she was getting a little hungry. It was past lunchtime.

 

Following a fun lunch out and some more visiting, I said we needed to get going. We were already going to hit rush hour traffic and I did not want to be driving back in the dark.

 

Jill was driving. When we hit the beltway, I braced myself to help her merge into traffic.

 

Huh, this looks pretty good. Traffic was moving along well and Jill had no problem merging.

 

We beat my mom back home from work. She was surprised since I had texted her to say we’d be home around 6:00pm.

 

It was 4:45pm.

 

After my mom pointed out the time to us, we both looked at our watches and our phones. Yup, the times all said 4:45pm.

 

But weren’t we still on Central Standard Time? Apparently not.

 

I swear my Garmin watch had not automatically reset the time when I arrived in D.C. the day before because I even commented to my mom that I didn’t know how to reset the time so I would just have to remember that my watch was an hour off.

 

“I feel like we’ve been living in an alternate universe today,” Jill exclaimed.

 

We retraced our day and marveled at our many opportunities to realize the correct time. But noooo, we just assumed we were right and everyone else was wrong!

 

We could not stop laughing at ourselves.

 

I texted my dad and stepmom to ask them if we had arrived an hour early that morning.

 

Yes came the reply. That’s why my stepmom wasn’t ready for us.

 

Note to self: you’re not always right, Kristen, and you just may want to pay attention to your surroundings.

 

So too it goes with folks who mistakenly think that just because...

 

They are not married, or

 

They only have one child, or

 

They don’t have an “estate” so they don’t need to plan, or

 

They’ve told their family what their wishes are, or

 

[Fill in the blank here]

 

... that they have no reason to plan; no reason to be concerned; that all will be well for their family.

 

Maybe, just maybe, you may need to take a step back, consider that your assumptions may not be right, and that maybe you should seek professional advice about your situation.

 

As a Florida resident, you can do so here.

 

After all, Family Succession Planning is not just for the wealthy.

 

Family Succession Planning is the responsible thing to do for your family and loved ones.

 

After all, what loving parent or spouse wants to leave a mess for their family to clean up when they’re gone?

 

Jill and I were still laughing about our daylong faux pas when we went to bed that night.

 

Although we felt a little stupid (ok, a lot stupid), on the bright side at least we “gained” an extra hour that day when we realized the time was actually correct.

 

Kristen “Living in An Alternate Universe” Marks

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