10/11/2022
My visit to John and Debra’s house on May 17, 2022, was a pleasant experience all around.
We had a late morning in-home appointment to discuss final expense options for the both of them. He was newly 80 and she just 66.
For whatever reason the welcoming couple told me they hadn’t had life insurance coverage for quite some time and knew it would be wise to figure something out sooner than later.
After getting to know each other a bit and giving each of them coverage options based on their age and health, John sat back in his massive brown rocker and was adamant that they’d like the more expensive of the three choices provided. That would work best for each of them, he said.
But he wasn’t going to make a decision and apply for coverage today, he said. They’d like to talk things over as a couple. I’d be lying if I said I never heard that before from my senior clients.
So after making sure the monthly premiums presented were not the issue in holding off and were affordable for their fixed income, I headed out the door to my next appointment.
About this time a large package arrived via UPS. I gladly offered to help them unpack a new sweeper Debra had been anxiously waiting for.
Little did John and Debra know their world was about to change.
It wasn’t until August 30, over three months since we first met at their beautiful brick ranch, that I was able to get hold of Debra on the phone to follow up.
The news Debra proceeded to relay was head scratching and heart breaking.
She sadly informed that John had suddenly passed away from a massive heart attack in early August. Of all the health conditions on John’s file, a bad heart wasn’t one of them.
But Debra wasn’t finished with the sobering news.
It turns out she was talking to me from a nursing home where she was rehabbing a broken hip. She said it wasn’t but a few days after John’s funeral that she slipped walking across her kitchen floor. When she landed, Debra said she was rendered immobile.
Now living at home all alone as a new, grieving widow, it would be FIVE whole days before a neighbor did a well-check out of curiosity from not seeing Debra out and about in her yard.
When the paramedics made their way inside the home, Debra said she wouldn’t have lasted another day on that kitchen floor. Dehydration was having its way. Luckily God had other plans for Debra.
We agreed to get together once again and revisit final expense options once she was out of rehab.
Before hanging up the phone, however, Debra informed the $8,000 they spent on John’s funeral came 100 percent out of pocket from their savings. That’s the only choice they had.
