My Mom was also a police officer at the time and was working as an SRO at a local school. Dispatch contacted her so that she could come to be with me. We, my Mom, my sister, and I, learned later at the hospital that my Dad would not make it.
My parents were divorced, and my Mom was to retire at the end of 2022 from police work as well. This left her to be the primary source of support for me and my older sister, who was a junior in high school at the time. My mom is retired and took a part-time job at the school so that she could also help care for my grandpa, who had parkinsons and was becoming too much for my grandma to handle.
After my Dad passed, we learned that he had recently stopped paying his life insurance premium. My mom was surprised; she had made sure they always had life insurance when they were married, and she believed he still was carrying life insurance. Being a police officer, my Dad had started receiving his pension. We soon learned that my Dad filled out his retirement paperwork to receive his pension “for his life only”. This means that his pension that he worked 30 years for died with him, and there would be no continued payments for his beneficiaries.
Both of these mistakes were a huge financial hit to my sister and me. Having either life insurance or the pension would have meant that college would be less of an issue for us. Instead, even a less expensive state school is a challenge. I have saved money for myself over the years, and I have worked a part-time job while in high school. I have been involved in 4H and FFA showing livestock and have also saved the profits from sales at fairs. I, however, have not saved enough to cover 4 years of college. My mom is spread thin financially with both my sister and I attending college right now.
I will forever tell people to make sure their financial affairs are in order and their family will be taken care of if something tragic happens.