As a healthy 26-year-old, I don’t think about death often. But earlier this week, it was staring at me right back in my face, in the form of an app. The app was asking me questions about my final wishes, some I normally wouldn’t have considered, like do I want my friends and family to have a stiff drink on the anniversary of my death?
After quick consideration, I decided, yeah, actually I would. It’s a nice thought. But then it asked me a few questions in the form of yes or no statements that were harder to answer, like “I feel at peace with how I’ve lived my life so far” and “It is important for me to never be a burden to my loved ones.” They were definitely harder than the ones asking if I wanted my funeral “to be a unique celebration of my life” or if “I have a backup plan for my online account passwords.”
I can’t ever remember thinking about end-of-life issues for myself before. But that’s kind of the point with CAKE, a Boston startup that is developing an app that aims to make it easier for people to think about these sort of things.
