Several years ago, Mac McIntire, a member of the Las Vegas 7th Ward, had a dream that significantly influenced his life, and now has impacted numerous Latter-day Saints in the Las Vegas Area. Mac dreamed he died.

“In my dream I saw my wife’s reaction when she learned I’d died,” McIntire said.

“She was grieving terribly. But then I watched as her grief quickly turned to anger.
She was furious with me for dying and leaving her in such a mess.”

At the time of his dream, McIntire’s wife, Nadine, knew very little about her husband’s business clients or the financial aspects of his consulting business. She had no idea who needed to be contacted to cancel business appointments. She was unaware of his accounts payable or receivable. She didn’t know how to access his business files on the computer or even where to find his business checkbook.

There also were things around their home that only McIntire knew how to do; things such as how to clean the pool filter, change the sprinkler settings, or run the electric generator. He also handled all the family finances.

McIntire saw in his dream the numerous decisions that had to be made about his funeral and burial. But his wife became frustrated while making even relatively simple decisions because she did not know his wishes.

When he awoke from his dream, he determined that he would not let his nightmare become a reality.

McIntire put his organizational skills to work. He developed a step-by-step “procedures manual” that his wife could follow in the event of his death. It outlined everything McIntire knew about his business, medical, insurance, financial, and property information. It also stated his personal wishes should he die or become disabled.

“We call it the Red Book,” McIntire said. “It’s a red binder that contains everything anyone would ever need to know about our earthly affairs.”

McIntire’s “death or disability” manual tells his family who to contact in a medical emergency or who to inform of his death. It contains his medical history, Living Will, and Healthcare Directives if, for some reason, he no longer can communicate. It explains the location of important insurance, financial, property, trust, power of attorney, and Last Will and Testament documents. It also outlines a list of 38 things that must be done immediately after his death, before his funeral, or soon after his funeral to settle his estate. He’s even gone so far as to write his own obituary and plan his funeral service.

McIntire stressed that he did not want to be one of those people who die never having told his family how he feels about them. So, even though he has told his family most of what he has written in his final message, he’s glad he wrote it down in his Red Book so they will “hear it one last time from me after I die.”

When McIntire put together his Red Book he did so to inform his wife about things that only he knew. But while preparing the manual he realized there were things too that only his wife knew. Those things were included as well.

Soon after preparing his manual, McIntire was asked by his wife, then the Relief Society president in his ward, to share his Red Book at Homemaking (now Enrichment) meeting. “Since that first presentation I’ve spoken to more than 60 LDS groups about my Red Book,” McIntire said. “Originally I just did this for my own family, but I’ve since realized that everyone needs a Red Book. Someone else needs to know what only you know.”

As a result of his experience speaking to various groups, McIntire decided to write a book showing how people can develop their own Red Book. Co-authored by his mother (who has her own Red Book), McIntire wrote How to Create a Survivor’s Journal: Preparing Your Family for Your Death or Disability. The book contains hundreds of pages of information, instruction and guidelines regarding life and death issues. Written in a workbook format and placed in a binder (which is red, of course), the book offers sample legal documents and 65 fill-in-the-blank forms that, when filled out, answer the important questions surviving family members will need to know about an individual’s personal affairs.

“When you die, you go on to a better place,” McIntire explained. “It’s your surviving family members who have to settle your estate. That’s why we call the Red Book a Survivor’s Journal, because you create it to make life easier for your surviving family members.”

Surprisingly, what started out as a “death” manual for his family has actually turned into a living document that McIntire himself has used on numerous occasions.

“Every piece of information of importance is in one location – my Red Book. I’ve gone to that binder more times than I can count to look up Social Security numbers, access insurance policies, verify account information, look up the addresses of trusted service providers, or conduct other important transactions,” McIntire said.

“When I first put my Survivor’s Journal together, I did it to bring comfort to my wife and family,” McIntire confided. “But I found my Red Book also brought significant comfort to me. Knowing I’ve done everything I can to ease my family’s burden is a tremendous comfort to me. I’m relieved to know that if my family has any pain at my death, it will be out of love and grief, not anger and frustration.”

For more information, contact Mac McIntire, 702-258-8334, 840 Trotter Circle, Las Vegas, Nevada, 89107.