~~Weekly Newsletter – DEATH WITHOUT BURIAL COVERAGE
This weekly newsletter details a story of a death with no burial coverage. Everyday somewhere in the world, somewhere in the United States a child is born and someone passes away. There are costs involved in coming into the world and in going out. How we prepare for the entry and exit can be both joyous and painful. Not being prepared for either situation financially can cause tremendous anxiety. The majority of Americans are covered by life insurance and health insurance by virtue of their employment. When employment disappears, unfortunately those two very important needs of our lives also disappear.
Unlike our parents and parents before them, many of us do not have life insurance outside of our employment. Therefore, if something untoward were to befall us, a situation of high anxiety and extreme sadness would prevail because we would not have the means to take care of the final business of our lives.
I witnessed such a situation recently and this is not the only situation I have witnessed and to my great dismay, it will not be the last. A young woman not yet 40 years old was struck down in the prime of her life without warning. She had not been ill to anyone’s knowledge and in the estimation of most reasonable thinking minds, she was too young, she was too everything to die. Her children were young, 17, 12 and 10 the ages when they needed their mother most and she was gone as sudden as a down pouring of rain dried up by the sunshine as though it never rained at all.
The loss was heart-wrenching on two fronts. The girl with a smile that could light up the darkest night was gone; no words could console her loved ones. There was also no life insurance because the young mother was between jobs. She was not a federal retiree and she was not a federal employee who had separated from service, but not yet retired. She was however, a federal employee, who had not met the tenure requirements to realize any federal benefits.
The heart-break of a family who not only struggled with such a sudden and unexpected loss, but how to take care of the financial responsibilities required to lay their family member to rest with some degree of dignity was front and center in their minds. She was so loved and the outpouring of support demonstrated the life she had lived, albeit it too short for everybody who knew and loved her.
The funeral arrangements came together after much hurried planning in exactly 10 days. The church was filled with people from every angle – around the walls, should-to-shoulder seating and even the outside steps strained to hold the crowd peering inside of the church. There next to the piano was a huge picture of the young lady with the great big smile, making it hard to think about the sadness of the moment.
The lesson in this sad occasion is that death is not a canvass for the old and informed; it is a canvass for anyone, anytime and anyplace. I ask the question over and over again, when is the best time to start planning for your retirement and taking care of the final business of our lives? The answer is NOW. This concludes our weekly newsletter.
P.S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
Dianna Tafazoli
