I got a check today for $256.13 from the Physicians Life Insurance Company of Omaha, Nebraska.
It was a payout on a life insurance policy my Mom, who died in 2002, had let lapse in 1982.
To say a chill ran down my spine would be an understatement.
Apparently Mom had taken out a life insurance policy and had let in lapse in 1982, when I – her youngest — was safely away in college, and it still had some minuscule value. Mom was always looking out for me. She had taken out this policy undoubtedly because, if she died, she didn’t want to leave me with nothing. Once I was off on my own, she was probably thankful to not have to pay the premiums out of her minimum wage job, so she had let it lapse.
Getting this check, six years after she died but less than one week after I had visited Appalachia with the Appalachian Community Fund, an organization I got involved with to honor her memory, seemed too bizarre. All I could think last weekend in Appalachia was how much each of the women we met with reminded me of my Mom, feeling almost like she was there in the room as we talked with these women. And from beyond the grace, she reached out today and touched me.
I sent thank you notes to the three womens’ groups we met with today, giving them each a 1/3 share of the money my Mom had left. I think she would be proud to know her money will be going to help women like her, fighting today the same battles she fought her whole 76 years on this planet. I made it out just fine, thanks to her: now her tiny financial legacy will be put to work helping other women just like her.
I love you, Mom. Six years after you died, you still do things that amaze me.