Chapter 2 SIX MONTHS LATER…Cont...

On top of all that Ronni had an appointment with her orthopedic surgeon. Ronni has been a toe walker all of her young life, and we had been on a merry-go-round of doctors both orthopedic and neurology until we found the right medical people who could correct her feet.
Just when I was about to catch my breath, I get a phone call from Anna, our insurance agent. She reminded me that the last time that Mark and I were in her office that we expressed interest in buying life insurance. She told me that the price would increase if I bought the insurance after I turn forty-five, and since my forty-fifth birthday was just a week away Mark and I might want to buy the insurance now. So, there we were, the couple whose normal speed for making any decision was slow and stop, we had to make the decision whether or not to buy life insurance and we had to make it now.
I wanted Mark and me to get more life insurance. Unlike many people we know who take a job because of salary and benefits, we do the jobs that we do because we love them. As long as we stay alive and healthy, we can make enough money to meet our needs.
We live differently than most people. You see I worked part-time at the local library and my husband is a forth generation Methodist Minister. We don't own the house we live in, heck, we don't even rent it. The house or parsonage is owned by the church that Mark is assigned to serve. So we don't really have a house to call our own which is ok, because the church takes good care of its minister and their families. But, if something were to happen to Mark, I would have to move out of the parsonage to make room for the new minister. To do that I would need enough money to be able to buy a small home for the girls and me.
So our lives were perfect, we had each other, two great kids and jobs that we loved that paid us just enough to live middle-class lives, but what it something happened…I felt we needed more insurance.
Although Mark wouldn’t need to move if I died, he would loose my income (small as it was). He would also have many added expenses, such as baby sitting, house keeping, and so on. We also realized that we needed two full-time incomes (I plan to start working full-time in a few years) to get these girls through college.
So, we decided to buy each of us a twenty-year, $100,000 term life insurance policy. All we had to do was pass a physical. We weren’t worried about me because I was in good shape; my only health flaw was that I had mult-valved prolapsed a minor heart valve thing that the cardiologist told me not even to worry about. I just had to take antibiotics before I had work done by my dentist or any other surgery.
Mark on the other hand had high blood pressure so we were worried that he might not pass. A nurse came to our house, we filled out many forms, and she took some blood. Then we waited. A few weeks later Anna called to tell us that the insurance agency was willing to insure Mark for the $100,000 but not me because of the mult-valved prolapsed. They would however offer me a very expensive five-year police.
I was very angry and wanted to take all of our business to a difference insurance company. But, Mark calmed me down, saying that we didn’t need me to be covered, because my job does pay about $10,000 if I died. That would be enough bury me, and anyway, he didn’t plan on me dying any time soon. I was still mad, after all I was healthy and I plan to live to be 100 years old. I decided that I was going to send the insurance company a card on my birthday each year saying “I’M STILL ALIVE, AND YOUR COULD HAVE COLLECTED A YEARS WORTH OF PREMIUMS, HA-HA. Mark didn’t think that the card was a very good idea.
After Ronni’s birthday, my niece’s birthday, valentines days, the visit to Ronni’s doctor and dealing with the insurance company I ran out of excuses..