Today I am guest posting on Money Saving Mom, an amazing blog that helps you to be a better home economist. I wrote about my father’s passing away in June 2013, and how thankful I am that we had an emergency fund to help pay for his funeral. A few weeks ago, I also posted tips on How to Build an Emergency Fund that will hopefully help and encourage some of you to get one started or to keep building one up.
Here’s the opener of my story:
“In June 2013, my father passed away. It wasn’t totally unexpected. He had diabetes, his health had been declining, and earlier in the year his doctor said his kidneys were failing. However, I was still shocked when my brother called me to let me know my father passed away. That week was stressful as we hurried to make funeral arrangements and clean out my father’s apartment. But the biggest stress was the financial burden of the funeral that fell upon me and my three siblings.”
If you want to continue to read about my experience with my father passing away and how we managed it financially, head over to Money Saving Mom.
I’m sorry about your loss and the stress that surely went along with it.
I’ve just gotten home in Indiana from handling my mother’s death in Florida. I’ve had a terrible summer with traveling back & forth and then ….losing my mom after all she had been through.
She, too had not prepared for death. She lived alone for many years and had collected a lifetime of STUFF! Her house was packed from floor to ceiling. It was so horrible!
My hubby and I spent over a week and a half dismantling her life and selling everything we could. I ended up paying some of her bills because she was in the hospital for several months. At the end she told me that she wanted to be cremated. That was a blessing since she had no money either and we had to pay for it and recoup our money after selling her things.
The hardest part has been doing all the things that should’ve been handled before illness & death. I live so far away and had to literally walk away from wonderful treasures in her house and sell them to an auction who only gave us $150 for it all.
Now that I’m home….I can start the grieving process and cry. I didn’t have time to feel sad or mourn the loss of my precious mom because too much had to be done.
🙁
I am so sorry to hear about your mother. That would be so hard to have to take care of everything when you lived so far away from her. I was lucky that my father only lived a few hours from me. Thank you for sharing your story with me. It helps me know that I’m not the only one going through something difficult like this. I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers that you will find strength and comfort.
My company deals with this everyday. We see the majority of people just care about preparing for their funeral only when they are very sick. Some rely on their family. I think it is not fair.
Getting a small policy of Life Insurance to cover for the final expenses is the best way to go.
There are policies for seniors up to 89 years old depending of the State they live. Also there are policies even for patients with cancer and diabetes.
When it comes to the major milestones in life, death and funerals are definitely ones that everyone on Earth must journey to and through at some point in our lives. Clearly we all wish these difficult life events will happen later versus sooner, but no one is promised a tomorrow.