Saturday, December 06, 2008

Random ramblings about life and death

It's a lovely Saturday, cloudy and cool... my kind of day. I'm a very sunny person. Well, most of the time, but when I get angry, which is quick and often, I'm a terrible thunderstorm. So I guess that's why I like the days to be mild and mellow and vague since my temperament is always at some form of extreme emotion.

Because of my temperament, I've always felt that I'd burn out pretty soon. So one of the very first things I did as an adult was buy an insurance plan. Ya, how boring can I get. It wasn't really for me; it was for my family. When I bought the plan, I was, at the time, the only one with income in my family. So, since I was convinced I'd die young, I thought that my poor family would be in big trouble if I'd kick the bucket. Well, I'm still alive.

When Mama died, she didn't have any savings, any insurance, any money. Death is expensive. It's vulgar how people in the death business have taken advantage of the grief of families to shock them into paying tons of money just so their loved one can get a decent burial. Mama had a fantastic send off, but it cost a lot of money. I'm glad Vince and I had enough for the deposit, and then we were more glad that people gave Papa enough cash to pay for all the costs, even to cover what Vince and I shelled out. Thank God for all the generous people. I used to get annoyed when envelopes were passed around at work or at school when someone's somebody died. Until Mama died. Now, if anyone has a death in a family, I won't hesitate to give.

I know most of my readers are from countries where the government or their workplace provides generously for their medical and retirement needs. Well, that's not the case in the Philippines. So Vince and I checked for life insurance rates recently. Somehow the plans we both got six years ago don't seem enough anymore. Time to get more life insurance plans and to add memorial plans and pension plans and medical plans, too.

Darn. It's a gray day and I feel really old.

*photo used with permission from Free Foto.

4 comments:

  1. The cost of death really, really angers me. One of my course mates, her Dad died weeks ago
    and people are chasing her for money for the funeral. She's only 16 dammit, lost both her parents within 6 months of each other,
    getting no help from the government and people are demanding money left right and center.

    Ugh.

    (Sorry, I got carried away)
    x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Don't apologize for getting carried away. It's inhuman what these funeral people do. And they can actually throw the exorbitant figure at your face without blinking. You blink bank, repeatedly, and say, "What? How much did you say? I can buy a frikkin' new car or drop a downpayment on a new house with that amount!"

    It's insane. It's sad. It's disgusting. It's a fact of life... in this case, death.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, DC, your friend's story really breaks my heart. I can't imagine the pain and horror she must be going through. Please tell her that things will work out, believe it or not, and she should never give up on the fact that there is still good in man and in life. =)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wait till you have kids. It will be a whole different scenario.

    ReplyDelete

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