{"data":{"id":"93c35846-5be6-41cc-ba9c-bf2999934d42","updated_at":"2024-04-05T15:48:34Z","template_id":"73046548-86ec-431a-aca0-75b53bc936f3","localized":{"blocks":[{"id":"a3d1e38f-3a8b-4800-a2da-2e5d21437ec7","kind":"richtext","template_id":null,"content_html":"

I’m turning 70 later this year and likely because of my age, it seems lately that a week doesn’t go by without someone I know dying.

And I’m not the only one feeling this way.

Last year an old boss of mine called me wanting to confirm that I was still alive. He was rattled because twelve people he knew had died that year. I was happy to report to him that at least for now I was still alive and kicking.

In December I went for the dreaded colonoscopy which always scares me because of our history of cancer in my family. After the procedure the nurse told me everything looked ok other than what would normally be expected for an older person.

Hearing what she said bothered me as I’ve been hearing the same theme about age related decline from a number of sources since turning 65.

I told the nurse hearing this being repeated over and over wasn’t very encouraging. So she tried to be encouraging for me and told me that everyone eventually dies so I just needed to learn to accept this. I thought about what she said for a moment and replied that while she was right about this, my plan was to die slowly.

But what she said got me to thinking that I should be careful and not waste any of the precious time I have left.

With that in mind this year we will be visiting Europe again and then in October the Drak Pac will gather in Vegas to celebrate my big birthday.

I also plan on doing a lot more fishing in the years ahead.

Attending all these funerals has also got me to thinking about my own. I really don’t want one but my wife insists that I have need to have one and to write out my wishes for her.

(For the record, I choose not to tell her part of my plan was to outlive her because she tends to hold a grudge.)

But this discussion did start me thinking about what she would do with my fishing equipment and I could see her throwing it out or giving it to someone that wouldn’t appreciate it and that bothered me.

So I decided to write down that I wanted to have a Viking funeral up at the cottage. I told her that I wanted my body along with and all my fishing equipment put into my fishing boat. The boat was to then be pushed away from the dock and allowed to drift on the waves. I requested that an archer stand on shore and then shoot a flaming arrow into the boat’s gas tank and that would be that.

I like the thought of going out that way. A warrior on his shield with his most cherished possessions by his side the way death is supposed to be.

But knowing my wife this will never happen!

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Mike Drak is a Senior Contributor at Booming Encore and the Author of the best-selling book Victory Lap Retirement, Retirement Heaven or Hell and Longevity Lifestyle by Design. Along with being an Author, Mike is also an award winning blogger, retirement coach and public speaker and has made appearances on BNN, CBC Radio and iHeart radio. He is a thirty-eight year veteran of the financial services industry and lives with his wife Melina in Toronto, Canada.

","description_text":"Mike Drak is a Senior Contributor at Booming Encore and the Author of the best-selling book Victory Lap Retirement, Retirement Heaven or Hell and Longevity Lifestyle by Design. Along with being an Author, Mike is also an award winning blogger, retirement coach and public speaker and has made appearances on BNN, CBC Radio and iHeart radio. He is a thirty-eight year veteran of the financial services industry and lives with his wife Melina in Toronto, Canada. ","summary_html":null,"summary_text":null},"profile_type_id":"9822821d-c96a-4ece-a318-c42ca4715c88","first_name":"Mike","last_name":"Drak","pronoun":null,"avatar_image_url":"https://assets.boomingencore.omerloclients.com/community/da8953e0-d9ff-4dc3-b11c-9274bf17aa59.jpeg"}},"profile_types":{"9822821d-c96a-4ece-a318-c42ca4715c88":{"id":"9822821d-c96a-4ece-a318-c42ca4715c88","key":"contributors","kind":"person","updated_at":"2024-02-27T21:26:34Z","localized":{"name":"Contributors","locale":"en"}}}}}