Lois had been married to Alex for 54 years when he suffered a fatal heart attack. She was devastated. The couple had been inseparable since their early twenties, raising two children and running their hardware business together.
She hadn’t expected him to go first. Although he was four years her senior, she was the one who had beaten breast cancer, had two hip replacements, and took pills to manage high blood pressure. Meanwhile, he had been the picture of health, until suddenly he wasn’t.
Lois was unable to get herself out of bed for several days following her loss. Her eldest daughter, Janice, moved in to care for her. Meanwhile, her younger daughter, Claire, who was vacationing in Europe with her family at the time, made arrangements to return home.
Neither Lois nor her two daughters were free to start planning Alex’s funeral.
While funerals don’t have to take place within days of a death, there are immediate steps that must be taken. In this instance, Lois, Janice and Claire weren’t available to assist. Thankfully, Lois and Alex had purchased funeral protection.
“Ironically, it was mom who had insisted on getting them funeral insurance,” says Janice. Lois got the idea from a friend she used to play bridge with, whose son worked for TruStage. Prior to their conversation, she hadn’t even known that such a thing existed.
“Mom was convinced that she’d be the one to go first and she couldn’t stand the thought of dad having to organize her funeral – you know, without having her there to help.” This seemed to be the perfect solution so Lois presented it to her husband. According to Janice, he resisted at first but eventually succumbed. “Dad adored mom, so she always got her way – eventually,” Claire adds fondly.
Thanks to TruStage, the family was free to focus on caring for one another.
When Janice called her parents’ TruStage representative, he assured her that focusing on her mother’s needs was the right thing to do; that he would get things into motion, and he did. He contacted their designated funeral director and they began working through the paperwork.
Because Alex had created an end-of-life plan, Lois and the girls were not forced to make any decisions during this difficult time. Rather, the funeral home went ahead and organized all of the pre-selected goods and services Alex had requested.
“This was a life-saver,” says Janice. “Mom really needed our support in those early days. I just can’t imagine how Claire and I would have coped if we’d been responsible for handling all of the funeral arrangements on top of caring for her.”
The cost of the burial and memorial were fully covered by Alex’s funeral insurance policy.
The death benefit proceeds were released immediately to the funeral home. The family didn’t even have to cut a cheque. Both emotionally and financially, Alex’s funeral insurance prevented further insult being added to the injury his family suffered as a result of his death.
And really, that’s the best one can hope for in such a situation, isn’t it?