One afternoon when the husband called over his life insurance agent the youngest daughter decided that with everything going on it was a good time to get a policy started for her fiance and his daughter. She asked if she could piggyback on the husband's appointment and get that policy started. She waited at her house until his meeting with his agent was over before walking over and speaking to the agent herself.
Her mother was upstairs and after briefly going upstairs to check on her the daughter went back downstairs to start her meeting, the husband didn't budge from his seat at the table and stayed for the daughters whole appointment. When the appointment was coming to an end the agent turned to the husband and said, "Okay the last thing I need from you is your wife's signature on the change of beneficiary form and all will be set." The daughter looked down at the form and at the husband in shock. Why was there a beneficiary change now after 20 years? Why had he removed her sister from being a beneficiary after 20 years? Who changes a person's beneficiary so close to the end of their life? It was appalling. The daughter's heart raced and she was speechless. Something just didn't feel right about this.
The husband reached across the table and took the form and asked the agent if he could take it upstairs to his wife to sign since she couldn't really get out of bed. The agent said yes that she was supposed to see her sign it but that she trusted him. (big mistake) He went upstairs and quickly returned with the signed form. The daughter didn't know how to react to what had just transpired and when he continued to laugh and act as if what he had done wasn’t wrong and sneaky she immediately left. There was nothing he could say or do to justify a change like that to her mother's insurance. And how could the agent admit to knowing she was breaking protocol? And how could her mom be okay with changing her insurance like that? Was she even aware of what was going on? There were so many questions swirling around in her head.
The daughter went straight inside her house to discuss what had just happened with her fiance, he too couldn't understand why now the beneficiary was being changed. In the back of their minds they knew the reason they all just didn’t want to believe it. This man was really that greedy. He wanted to make sure he was the only one legally in charge of the insurance money and all decisions when their mom passed away.
She couldn't believe what she had seen and didn't want to be the only one to know so she quickly called her sister and told her what she had just witnessed and that didn't go over well with her either. To say all involved were upset would be an understatement. The two decided to sit on the information for a while until they could with a clear mind and no anger talk to their mother about it.
One morning while the oldest daughter was with her mom alone she decided to talk to her about everything. She told her what her sister said happened and her mother was confused. She said she wasn't sure what was going on, that yes he had taken her a paper to sign and that she had no clue what she had actually signed, that she assumed it had to do with the cancer insurance that they were having a hard time with. She said she had no idea the paper had anything to do with beneficiaries. The mom apologized to her daughter if she had signed anything like that. She said she really thought that the paper she signed had to do with her cancer insurance, something to help push through their claims. The conversation was continued and much more was said about the husband and situation and how no one really trusted him anymore. The mom cried, she hated when her family fought especially now when she couldn't really do anything about it anymore. She asked her daughter if they could not tell the husband what they’d discussed because it would only make him upset and she didn't want any more tension in the house, the daughter agreed and relayed the message to her sister.
It was beginning to worry both daughters seeing how much their mom was blindly making allowances for her husband and defending him when he was clearly making bad choices, choices that any normal person would see were wrong. They loved their mom more than anything and they knew their mom loved her husband, but they wondered what was really going on in that house when they weren't around. if he was such a mean ugly person in front of them how was he when it was just him anf their mom. What kind of stuff was he telling her to make her act the way she'd been acting lately? In a lot of ways she wasn't the same person anymore, and yes it was due to her having cancer, they knew that, but with everything else they had seen over the last few months they weren't convinced that was the only reason their mom made the shift. They just hoped that they were wrong because if something was going on in that house while no one was around they were to blame for it as well.
It was sad seeing their mom this way. She’d always been the first one to get in your face if she thought you had wronged her or her family. She'd been tough all her life. This woman now was one that seemed tired and defeated. She was being pulled in different directions and all she wanted was peace even if that meant letting someone get away with an act as horrible as this one. She did say that she would talk to him about it at some point, but it couldn't seem like they were ganging up on him. The whole insurance thing was dropped, but it certainly was not forgotten.
For their mother they were willing to let a lot of things go, things that in hindsight should have been dealt with while she was alive. Things that because they let it go can never be resolved because the man in charge turned out to be an ugly spiteful person who on multiple occasions let people know he was the one in charge, he had the final say so and because they weren't willing to get with the program and treat him the way he saw fit he wasn't going to budge.
From that moment on the two daughters were very weary of the husband, but kept their opinions to themselves. Having to keep their feelings inside took its toll on them and they began to slowly distance themselves from the husband. Sometimes just seeing his face made them angry, seeing him walk around smiling as if he'd done nothing wrong angered them. Nobody would ever know how that man made their skin crawl and how frustrating it was to have to keep their feelings hidden. By keeping their distance from the husband both daughters had inadvertently began distancing themselves from their mom as well and they knew that was wrong, but they didn't know how to be around a person they could no longer trust. He was doing too many things that began to look as if he was only looking out for himself and a life when their mother was no longer with them.
Not wanting to stay away from their mom the daughters would spend time with her while the husband was at work and would leave soon after his return. That was something their mom started to notice and spoke to her daughters about. Their mom was sad and said she felt as if they were upset with her or at the very least taking things out on her. She said she felt like they were getting tired of helping her which was hard to hear because that was so not the case.
They loved their mother more than anything. She meant the world to them. During one of their heart to heart talks the youngest daughter even told her mom that she had an extra room and wanted her to come live with her, but that it had to be her and her alone, that she would be willing to spend every free second she had taking care of her, but the mom of course said she couldn't leave her husband so that idea was instantly dropped. The daughter knew her mom wouldn't take her up on her offer and leave her husband at home, but it was important to her that her mom knew she was loved and she wasn't a burden and she did want to help take care of her.
After that in depth conversation the two daughters decided to once again try not to let their disdain for the husband take away their remaining months with their mom. He wasn't worth it. Their mom was too important to them. They started to call each other and go over together to spend time with their mom. It was easier to do it as a pair than to go alone and try not to visibly show how upset they were with the husband. That plan worked out well for the two. They got to spend more time all together and their mom seemed happier now that she didn't feel the distance.
Chapter 6 - Insurance