LIFE Lessons – Essay Category First Runner-Up
Tarrant County College
Hometown: Weatherford, TX

Warm May weather always brings back the haunting memories of three years ago. It was the last day of my freshman year of high school. It seemed like a normal morning as my mother dropped me off near the glass doors at my high school. I shouted “bye mom!” as jumped out of the car in a hurry to chat with my friends before the tardy bell rang. I didn’t tell her I loved her, or how much she meant to me, like I should have. I was too focused on the excitement of the last day of school. I never thought that would be the last time I witnessed her alive, or the last time I felt her cheerful, comforting presence.

My mother passed away that day while I was at school. She had suffocated while having an epileptic seizure. There is nothing that I remember more clearly then coming home to her cold, lifeless body. My life fell apart in an instant. For the next few months, I slept constantly. At work, I became forgetful, not able to carry out simple tasks without making mistakes. When I returned to school the following August, I found it very difficult to concentrate. I had always been an A Honor Roll student, and suddenly, I was struggling to pass my classes.

When my mother passed away, she did not have life insurance. The effect of this devastated my family. Thousands of dollars from my college fund were used to cover funeral expenses. My father was forced to work weekends and late nights to make up for the money we had lost and to offset the lack of my mother’s income. I began working two weeks after my mother’s death to bring in extra money to our household. If my mother had left us with life insurance, maybe the transition to life without her would have been easier. It would have given my father and I an opportunity to spend more time together during that crucial time when we needed each other the most.

Thankfully, life has become a little easier for us in the past year. After cutting down on expenses and refinancing our house, we are able to live life more comfortably.

This fall, I will begin my freshman year of college at the University of North Texas.

However, my father will not be able to contribute to the funding of y education, because of credit card debt and living costs. I will have to finance my education with student loans, grants/scholarships, and the small amount of money in my educational fund. If y mother had left us with life insurance, financing my education wouldn’t be such a struggle.

The devastating effect of the loss of my mother has made my father and I understand how important it is to leave your family with life insurance. Now, my father has a large life insurance policy. I am so thankful for the fifteen years I was able to spend with my mother. Through all of this, I still feel like I am the luckiest girl in the world to have had such a wonderful mother and to still have an amazing father. However, I have learned many lessons from the loss of mother, and I plan to carefully construct my life so my future children will have a strong financial foundation both with and without me.

Would you like to place a donation to help support the LIFE Lessons Scholarship Fund? Click here.

Share this