Sometimes You Just Have to Reboot

• Pages: 33-34
• Date: 01 October 2023
• Author: Joseph P. Beckman
• Subject Matter: Civil Law

Published in Litigation News Volume 49, Number 1, Fall 2023. © 202 3 by the American Bar As sociation. Reprodu ced with permission . All rights reser ved. This information o r any portion ther eof may not be copied o r disseminated in any form

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MENTAL HEALTH & WELLNESS

By Joseph P. Beckman, Litigation News Ass ociate Ed itor

Sometimes You Just Have to Reboot

I

spent several days in Chicago right before Labor Day. It

was my home for the rst 32 years of my life. My family

is there. I went to get homeowners’ association approval

of a project for my widowed aunt. As the executor of her

late husband’s estate, I also had to go in the basement

and gure out what records did and did not exist. “The base-

ment” is a daunting task: seemingly endless. Boxes and cabi-

nets with 35 years of paper records; oh, and “regular” oods

added to the ambience.

Things went more smoothly than anticipated. Among the

memories down there was a le on my aunt’s fortieth gram-

mar school reunion (a bit of a thing for Chicago’s Catholic

Schools back in the day). Reading through this unexpectedly

evoked a raft of warm memories and precise recollections

that so animated my aunt (who has dementia) that I quietly

took a three-minute video to preserve her obvious joy to

share with her grandnieces and -nephews.

Did I Go 4 for 5 on “Top Stre ssors”?

University Hospitals lists the ve most stressful life events as

a death of a loved one, divorce or separation, moving, long-

term illness, and job loss. I score between 2–4 over the past 15

months, depending on how you count. Finishing the basement

project a day early, I met my best friend since sixth grade. At

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