Paperwork, promises and pointless policies

Daddy Blackbird #11

In the whirlwind of grief and shock after a sudden death by suicide, practical matters start to creep in, adding insult to injury.

Among all the paperwork and notifications and that ghastly death certificate, one challenging issue came to light: life insurance.

After Steve died, I was trying to manage the mountains of paperwork, admin, notifications, and decisions.

I was dealing with Steve’s workplace, banks, government agencies, utility providers, and so many other places.

It was overwhelming. The scale of what had to be done was unbearable, yet entirely unavoidable.

Steve and I had always considered ourselves responsible parents. Like many couples with young children, we’d taken out life insurance policies on each other, a safety net in case the worst should happen. It was a painful but practical decision, made out of love for our daughters. We knew we had to protect them.

But when I checked the small print, my heart sank. The policy we’d taken out together had only been in place for eight months.

It turned out there was a 12-month exclusion clause, the kind of detail you don’t pay much attention to when you’re healthy and full of hope, and there was an excruciating period while I waited for their final decision after appealing…