Why this is personal
I've seen both sides of this, in my own family.
My nephew Preston was killed in a mass shooting in Wichita. There was no warning and no time to prepare. Our family was suddenly trying to process something unimaginable while also dealing with all of the practical things that come after someone dies. Preston didn't have life insurance. Others set up a GoFundMe to help with expenses and support the people he left behind, and I took on the job of pushing it out through the media, trying to get as many eyes on it as I could. My great-nephew also died when he was only ten years old, and once again there wasn't coverage in place. Once again, our family found ourselves relying on other people for financial help while we were grieving. That stayed with me. I come from a proud family. We're pastors and helpers, usually the people bringing meals, raising money, and sitting in hospital rooms for someone else. Suddenly we were the ones who needed help. There's nothing wrong with needing people, and community showed up for us in a way I'm deeply grateful for. But I also know now that some financial burdens can be prepared for ahead of time, and if I can help another family do that, I want to.
Twice, my family had to ask others for help to bury someone we loved.
But I've also seen what it looks like when a family is ready. When my dad passed away, he had life insurance in place. It meant my mom could stay in the house I grew up in until she was ready to sell it, on her own timeline, instead of being pushed into big decisions in the middle of her grief. Same family, both sides of the same coin.
I watched that same kind of breathing room change everything for my wife. Bethany lost her first husband to cancer. She became a widow with five kids and had to figure out how to build a life she never expected to be living. Her husband had life insurance. It couldn't change what happened or make their grief easier, but it meant that in the middle of everything, Bethany didn't also have to immediately worry about losing their home or how she was going to provide for their kids. She had time to make decisions. She had options. She had some financial breathing room while their family grieved and slowly began figuring out what came next. I've now seen what both of those experiences look like: a family grieving while scrambling to cover the costs of a death, and a grieving family that had financial breathing room. That's why this work became personal for me long before it became a business.
