I’m going to try to make this simple as possible!
Sis! Make sure Everyone thats under your roof is COVERED! (For-Real)
If this is a subject that you’re avoiding, to talk about in your home, it could be a disaster waiting to happen…
GET YOU A LIFE INSURANCE POLICY!
This is my story, without the sugar…
Back in 2012, September 3rd. After a movie, and a dinner date, the unthinkable happened to me. This would change my life, and give me the most realist life check, that will never be forgotten…
My husband of 22 years, died from a heart attack!
You talking about shook! Yes shook…
Ignorant to the fact that people don’t have to be sick to die! When your time is up, there is nothing you can do about it! “It is what it is”
Felt like I’d been hit by a Mack truck!
That was wasn't the worst either! It was just getting started. "You mean there’s more” "Yes girl”.
Finding out from the mortuary that the small insurance policy we had was worthless, NO GOOD! Due to a clause, that gave the insurance company the right not to provide the death benefit.
WHATCHU you mean, we can’t use the policy? DAM…
Now I was caught between a rock, and a hard place.
This is when it hit Me, I wasn’t prepared for this… at all!
Can somebody tell me where was this suppose to make sense in the story...
I’d imagined when people get sick, you’ll get a chance to use your calling card to make a personal phone call to Jesus, himself, and ask for a special miracle right now Lord.
Thinking what a testimony this’ll be.
But not in my case. That was a moment that I needed a break…
Check this out, I don’t care about how hard you work to have all of the luxuries in life.
If you don’t have NO LIFE INSURANCE, to help you when the catastrophic BOMB hit your house!
You Ain’t Got Nothing! Cause The Struggle Is Real!
One more thing, I’d like to remind you, Nobody is coming…
Everything we earned, came and went!
Now don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t balling Per’se, nothing like that. We were just regular people, who happened to run a
Barber, and Beauty Salon.
However to Be honest, I believe I’d been chosen to deliver this message to you!
Due to a contestability clause in the contract. The Insurance company reserved their right not to pay us!
The policy needed to be on the books for at least 24 months, and ours only had been in effect for 18 months! Wow, talk about timing.
One more thing, this was all new to me.
Lets be honest, how often do we read contracts? We pay for it, and throw it in a drawer. Never to pull it out again, until we need it.
I learned a very valuable lesson from this experience. You must know the details of anything pertaining a coverage.
If you don’t know something, PLEASE ASK, what does it mean…
So moving forward we’d have to pay out of pocket…
What a blow this was to me. First, the husband dies unexpectedly, now the policy will not cover our immediate need.
Sis, "When it rain, it pours”
By the grace of God, with donations from our family, clients, and friends, we were able to pull it all together!
A week after his service, the reality set in. No husband, No motivation, No direction, and NO MONEY!
What was I going to do?
Our daughter had just became a Senior in high school.
My older kids all got a car, after graduation, but she was in a boat with her Momma that could possibly sink…
Not fair at all.
When I tell you we wasn’t just in a pickle, We were in a fricken ditch with No tools to dig our way out…
Mike would be the first of nine close relatives to pass away.
Not realizing this was the beginning of whirlwind that we’d be in for the next five years. Jaw dropping life events!
A treadmill that had no shutoff switch.
Losing him, and not being mentally, nor financially prepared took a toll on me…
But I had to keep pressing.
We moved multiple times, still struggling, and broke!
I started selling Insurance, to warn women of the potential pitfall that lye waiting for you if you’re not prepared.
It felt weird, the whole situation. My new normal wasn’t normal at all.
Scared shitless…
I was flying on one wing, with the other barely holding me up.
There was no escaping, I had to ride this thing out!
No one was coming, or calling. I Really felt alone, but also you’ll find all those people who said "Call me girl” they weren’t there either.
A Chick was broke!
My motivation was depleted.
What I‘d been accustom to was no longer there. Mike’s presence, along with his financial support was totally out of the picture.
I had given up my salon, because the emptiness, and the void feeling was my new reality.
The camaraderie, and the laughter that once filled his side of the room were gone! We had worked side by side for 20+ years.
I was a wreck trying to hold it together, and at the same time missing my other half!
Grieving was difficult to, because what I faced now was trying to keep me, and my 17-year-old daughter together.
What should’ve been her best year in high school was now seeing her mother in a space of confusion, and uncertainty. She reminded me not to give up!
(She’d become my mother in the present moment).
As the struggle to adjust to our new life, sleepless nights, and sleeping with all the lights on, due to the fear of the unknown.
Watching Obama win the election. Which Mike predicted he would win!
I spent days on end daydreaming of him walking in and telling me to pick my head up, because I haven’t left you.
Yes, all of these feelings of a new widow, were very valid.
One surprising thing I did experience, in February 2013, the night before I was to take the insurance exam, it was so real…
I was asleep, I felt him laying on my chest, I could see him, with a big smile across his face. I was so happy! I told him how much I missed him, and he replied how he missed me to.
As I was telling him about the kids and quickly pointing to the door, he was gone.
I told my daughter, I just saw your dad…
Boy now that was truly an experience! Never will I forget that moment.
And… I passed the insurance exam the following day.
This would become a real victory for me, which was an implication that confirmed that I was moving in the right direction.
Nine months later, another surprise! The insurance company that had previously denied our death claim, came through! And sent me a $10,000 check. Wow!
It had been so long since I had any additional help from anyone.
Because of my age at the time (46) I didn’t qualify for any widow’s benefit! So I thought this was going to get us back on track!
Right before my baby's graduation. "Just in time”
I was so behind in bills, the debt collector sympathize for only a second, but ultimately "When are you going to pay us”
We moved once again. Hopefully we can get on track, right. Finding a new place paying $300 less.
Well struggle stayed on its course and never missed a beat! It followed us right on to the new address.
The saying is "I can’t win for losing".
I begin to question why? All these years I had been a hard worker. Yes, we had struggles, but the difference now was, there was no help, and no shoulder of a spouse to lean on.
This is where my thoughts began to take me, that all of that working, and trying to do the day to day as a family, we were not prepared financially!
Me, as a New Insurance agent, trying to educate others about the importance of having a life Insurance policy, but I was an active student myself.
Why was there no one to educate me on the possibility of a catastrophic pitfall that could devastate my family and the ability to survive, or maintain. While I was grieving. Why?
My lack of cashflow wouldn’t let me grieve for my husband. Dealing with the 3-day notices on the door, that had became my new normal.
Let alone the electricity bill was $500 delinquent, with a shutoff date.
I could go on and on in this page, but my message to you is, clear. As a Widow there will be many trials and errors that you'll experience.
But… When I tell you Sis, you’re going to make it!
Trust the process.
It may take some-time, and during this new season. There will be a few things eliminated. All on it’s on.
BUT….
Your story don’t have to meet the financial struggle that I went through.
If you Take this message and heed the warning…
While working on the "New You" You’ll see things a-lot different, appreciating life like never before. Thats real talk.
In it you will find a new purpose. Yes. I said it! Not right away though, but as time moves on you will… Believe that!
It took me 5 years for this to happen, but I continue to be a student in my own class.
Continuously raising my hand for more.
I share my story with women hoping that they'll realize one day it will be them, in front of the closing of a casket. Asking ”Where do I go from here...
However, if they plan right! They don’t have to repeat my Tsunami of a story.
I appreciate that you’ve read this far, hope it’ll encourage you, to keep going.
One thing for sure you may bend, but you will not break!
I'll leave a link in this paragraph below to lead you over to my page to share to those you may know that is married, or been together for quite awhile, and don’t have Life Insurance. Pass this on to them.
I can’t tell you where your grief will take you? Everyone is different, with their own circumstances.
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