A certificate needed!

I have a friend who set out yesterday on an errand I had never heard before. He had to get a certificate of existence.
He obviously exists...but he has to prove it!
The reason for this is that he was not born in this country and spent his working life in a far flung part of the world. In order to get his pension he has to send in a certificate every year to prove that he's still alive!
This set off some new points of interest...
Obviously the company paying the pension need to be reassured that an anonymous person isn't receiving it and using it!
But actually proving life is not as easy as it sounds...
In this country once a death is registered on the receipt of a death certificate the powers that be swing into action and everything follows on swiftly and efficiently. This has improved enormously in the last few years. I seldom needed to send out the duplicate death certificates once the authorities had been informed.
But proving our existence could be difficult.
I breath therefor I am!
I blog therefor I am!
But finding someone to vouch for my existence could be tricky!
This is an uncomfortable run of thoughts.....but I do still exist even though proving it could be difficult.

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