Committed to family in life and death: Newfoundland man writes own obituary, plans funeral

A Newfoundland man who passed away last month got to perform a final act of kindness for his loved ones by taking care of all his affairs including his funeral and obituary.

There's no better way to show a love for somebody than to prepare for your own death.- Kelly Rowsell

Morris Power, 56, died on May 17 in Conception Bay South after being diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer a year and a half ago.

An obituary that he wrote himself, with his wife Kelly Rowsell's help, explained why after hearing the bad news he decided to take control of planning for his own death.

"Many things went through my mind in a short period of time and I soon realized I had an opportunity that many are not as fortunate to have. I can get ready," he wrote in the obituary.

"I can also prepare to make sure that my beautiful wife, Kelly, is going to be ok without me and to lighten any burden I can from her. Writing this is one of them."

Power married Rowsell, his partner of 11 years, just one day after the diagnosis. She said despite the shock of the news, he insisted on taking control of the funeral service and other duties and decisions normally carried out by grieving loved ones.

"He said 'I'm going to write my own and that will be one less thing you'll have to do.' I said 'Really?' and he said 'Yes. Besides, who knows more about me than me anyway?,'" she said. "So I started it off for him and throughout the year he would type in a little bit."

Power made sure every loose end he could think of was tied up before he passed. That included sorting the keys to his ATVs so his family wouldn't have to go look for them, writing down every password they might need to log in to his online accounts and planning for the funeral and obituary.

Act of love, even after death

Power died in his sleep two weeks ago at home with his wife and their cherished five dogs. For those left behind, there was nothing left to do but grieve.

But Rowsell and the rest of the family feel blessed to have known such a loving, selfless man who did everything for them — in both life and death.

"There's no better way to show a love for somebody than to prepare for your own death," Rowsell said.

"If you want to show someone you love them, do up your own, go and plan your funeral. Take the worst time of their entire life and try to ease that and what a show of love I believe that is, because he did that."

Read Morris Power's full self-written obituary on the InMemoriam website.