Rina - That Insurance Chick!

     Protecting families

            ...one at a time....

​Jeannie…Mom just died….

“Jeannie?”

“Yes.”

“Jeannie, I have something to tell you. Mom just died.

The hospital called me a few minutes ago.”

“Oh, Steve…Oh my gosh…What happened?!”

“Apparently, she had a heart attack. She was driving to work and according to the witnesses, she suddenly swerved into the next lane and hit another car, and then swerved back into the lane right in front of a semi carrying a load of steel. She made it to the hospital and was sent to surgery. Jeannie…she never made it out of surgery. The police found her phone and saw where she’d called me last night, and contacted me. I’m leaving in a few minutes to go to the hospital and sign the release papers. She’ll be transferred to the funeral home today.”

“I’m just in shock.” Steve heard the tears in her voice. “I talked to her yesterday too, and she was walking in the park for her daily 30 minutes. She was laughing and planning our Mother’s Day celebration. It’s supposed to be her day, but she was planning to cook all our favorite food. She was so healthy. I can’t believe she’s gone.”

“I know. I’m still hearing her laughter ringing in my head. Can you meet me at her house in a couple of hours? We need to find her insurance policies. I have to call the funeral home. We’ll need to run by there after we find them and arrange the funeral.” He paused a moment, then continued, “Do you want to call Janet, or should I?”

“I know this is totally unfair, but would you?” Jeannie was angry that their baby sister hadn’t spoken to their mom in over a year.

“Yeah.” He sighed. “I dread it, though. I tried to tell her last month she needs to stop blaming mom for her own decisions, but she wouldn’t hear it. I can’t believe she’s still mad because mom wouldn’t pay her rent after she spent her paycheck on drugs. She knows mom better than that.”

Maybe this will straighten her up, and she will start living like mom taught us to.” Jeannie sounded less than hopeful.

“I’ll call her on my way. I have to meet the hospital representative in about 40 minutes. Are you alright?”

“No. But I’ll see you at mom’s house. I need to call John. 

He’ll need to go get the kids. Let’s just get the business done this morning and we can meet at mom’s house this evening. I’ll call mom’s sisters and we can let them call the rest of the family. Oh, my gosh! Did you call mom’s work?”

“Not yet. I wanted to call you first. Can you do that while I call Janet?”

“Of course. Look, I need to do that now. 

I’ll see you at mom's.”

“Ok, by.”

At the house:

“Come in Steve. I found mom’s file for her insurance. You are not going to believe this. Her 20-year term policy expired last month. I guess she hadn’t gotten around to getting a final expense policy yet. I was thinking we had $200,000 dollars in insurance funds.” She sounded stressed.

“Since it was an accident, we’ll just have to use that one.” He responded. “I hope there’s enough. I got calls from 3 attorneys already from the people she hit. The two people in the car are both in the hospital. The truckdriver wasn’t hurt, but the trucking company attorney was one of the calls. They all have insurance for the property damage, but we’ll probably have to pay a settlement, and they’re already asking for more than mom’s Auto Insurance will cover.”

Jeannie looked even more upset. “Steve, she canceled that one. Remember she told us last Christmas that money was getting tight and she was cutting down on some expenditures? I guess that was one of them. She only works 15 minutes from home. I guess she didn’t see accidental death as a huge concern.” 

Her voice trailed off…"if only she’d known"…

Steve looked horrified. “Jeannie, what are we going to do? We have to go make arrangements and I already told them she had insurance.”

“I have about a thousand dollars in my savings account. Two of her sisters said they’d help if we need it. How much can you come up with?”

“I have the money I was saving for a down payment for a new car. I may have around $1,500. I doubt Janet will contribute anything.” He sounded ticked.

“I’ll call her sisters and see what they can do. Did you call Janet?”

“Yeah. She asked me for gas money.”

“Geez. She’s 28 years old. When is she going to grow up?”

“Never. Come on. We have to go to the funeral home. Maybe they have a payment plan.”

Later that day:

“$12,000?” Jeannie echoed the funeral director’s words. “We have about $2,500 hundred right now. Our aunts will probably help, but what kind of payment plans do you have for the rest?

He looked confused. Turning to Steve, “I thought you said she had insurance?”

“She did.” Steve answered. “We found the policies, but her term policy expired last month, and she’d dropped her accident coverage late last year. She was only in her 50s, I guess she didn’t think she needed a final expense policy for another few years. What do we do?”

“I’m sorry.” He sounded compassionate, but was very direct. “We can’t release the body without full payment. It’s company policy. All funeral homes work on a strictly cash basis. Can you borrow the funds?”

Both Jeannie and Steve were stunned. They looked at one another.

 “I’m not sure. We can try. What happens if we can’t? She has to be buried.”

“We cremate the body and hold the ashes until it’s paid for.” He quietly explained.

“Mom deserves better than that.” Steve was emphatic. “She’d never allow that to happen to one of us.” He felt guilty, knowing his mom had still been paying on the WHOLE LIFE polices she’d bought on each of them when they were small. “She paid ours, but not hers. That’s our mom.”

“Go make some calls.” The director gently urged. “I’ll be here all evening, and you can call and update me, or we can meet again tomorrow. We need to go ahead and finalize the arrangements though. Let’s walk through the process.”

It was a tough hour. They wanted the best for their precious mother, but it was so expensive, and she deserved more that a bargain basement service. They left shell-shocked.

They went back to the house, where their younger sister awaited them. She’d made herself lunch, totally trashing the kitchen, and was sitting on the deck smoking. “When’s the funeral?” were the first words out of her mouth, “I have to be back at work by Friday.”

“We’re not sure yet.” Steve was not charmed at her callousness. 

“We have to come up with the money. Mom’s insurance expired and they won’t take payments.”

“You mean mom cheated us out of our inheritance?!” She cried.

 “How like her!! I was counting on that money!”

Jeannie and Mike were shocked, but not surprised at their sister’s reaction. It was always about her.

“I’m not paying a dime.” Janet snarled. “Mom was supposed to take care of us. We shouldn’t have to pay for her, if she wasn’t smart enough to keep her insurance up.”

“Mom paid for our insurance.” Jeannie quietly stated. “Her insurance expired last month. I’m sure she planned on getting another policy. She didn’t know she’d need it this soon. You need to show some respect.” She went into th​e house, followed by Steve.

“I’ll call our aunts; they should be here soon anyway. You call dad’s brothers. They offered when dad passed, but his insurance kicked in. We’ll see what they can help with, then we can call our banks and borrow the rest. It will be on us.” Jeannie was in tears again.

After many calls, both feeling humiliated that they were begging people to help bury their mother, they managed to come up with eight grand. They called their bank and arranged for loans, of two thousand each. They should have been grieving their mom, and accepting condolences, instead of sitting there embarrassed by the last few hours. They looked at one another and Steve took her hand, then hugged her.

“Thank you for helping get this done. I promise you I’ll never leave 

this scenario on you or my family if I die. And when we get out of 

this mess, we better take turns paying Janet’s policy. Mom can’t do

 it anymore and we both know she won’t. That way we’ll know we have 

it when we need it.”

Jeannie nodded, then wrapped her arms around him, burying her head on his shoulder, finally able to let go and start to mourn her mother.

Don’t let this happen to you. It’s Mother’s Day.

Make sure your mom is covered. It’s a small price to pay so that she can be taken care of with dignity when that day arrives.

Don’t be caught using the BBS method: Beg, Borrow, Steal

YOUR MOM DESERVES THE BEST!