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Comment by rjohnk | Hacker News Reader

I've been diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer. While I hope to be around for awhile yet, I'm getting things ready for my wife to take over our digital life. Setting things up for easy backup and retrieval, ect. One of the things I've started is a

Word document with instructions on how to backup, what to do if the computer crashes, how to handle 1Password, what subscriptions are important ect. It'll be printed out and put in the safe.

My opinion is modern generations are woefully unprepared for how to handle our digital stuff when we pass. Whereas before we had physical photos, video cassettes, ect. that were easily handled, now everything is digital, sometimes just on phones.

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Having the physical photos still didn't mean we saved the context and relevance surrounding those images.

I've got boxes of photos from my Mom and Dad and Grandparents. For the most part, they don't have dates or captions. If I don't recognize a face, it's just random imagery that are, for the most part, just noise to my generation. If we knew why something was relevant, that'd be a different story.

If you can record your voice and retell the story behind an image, that could be golden to the people in your life. I only captured a couple of these recordings (just using my cell phone to record), and they're wonderful to listen to.

In the 1990s my cousins and I did a series of interviews with my grandfather about his experiences in WWII. Last year my cousin found the cassette tape of her interview and we all listened to it at Christmas. That was the first time I had heard my grandfather's voice in a decade.

In the 90s the stories themselves were interesting but now just having his thoughts in his voice is invaluable. I'd be equally happy with a recording of him describing his weekly coffee with his buddies, or what he had for lunch.

My parents picked up a couple of recordable storybooks for my 2 year old nephew. Right now those mean nothing to him but in 30 years they will be priceless.

I did record a special episode of my podcast just one year before he died. He was 86 at that time and my last living grand parent, so it was quite obvious, now or never. I'm really happy to have done 1.5 hours him remembering his childhood and youth as a German teenager during and after WWII https://jeena.net/pods/6 (it's in Polish/Silesian)

My other grand dad wrote a long letter just two days before he died. His whole life he was haunted by what he saw and did as a German soldier during WWII, and this is also what he wrote about in that letter which I later translated and published on my website http://paradies.jeena.net/artikel/zweiter-weltkrieg (in German) (need to fix the char set there too).

That is very precious material. As the world slides closer and closer to the last of those who saw these things with their own eyes dropping off the chances of repetition are increasing and their real life memories may be just what will stop the next round of madness. Thank you very much for doing this.

Wow that sucks. Strength to you.

Thanks. Ripe old age of 36 too. I'm optimistic though.

Oh wow :-(. I am around your age and this literally sent a shiver down my spine. More strength to you. Hope all will be well.

There is a startling statistic that shows colon cancer for older people is dropping, due to routine colonoscopies recommended for those 50+, but is increasing in those that are in their 20's and 30's. It's a more aggressive type too.

All I can recommend is that if one has previously unexplained constipation, thinning stools and/or blood in the stool, get checked right away and insist on a referral for a colonoscopy. My doctor initially thought it was constipation or IBS and it was two months before a referral to gastro.

In 5-10 years I think medicine will start to recommend a colonoscopy at age 30.

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