I have mentioned it in the past, but my brother is FDNY. He was the second class after 9/11 occurred and was recently promoted to Lieutenant after studying and applying himself like I have never seen before. It makes 9/11 a reminder that something could happen to him.
I recently came across the video below, and holy shit it is hard not to tear up while watching it:
Who doesn’t remember exactly where you were that day? A couple years back The Wife shared her experience on her blog,
I went to Hofstra University. For those of you who don’t know where that is, it is a university that is less than 25 miles from Manhattan. I am certainly not an early riser, but for some reason on that day I happened to awaken to the TV which was on, and set to the news. (my husband sleeps with the TV on). I open my eyes and I happen to hear the news talking about a plane that had crashed into the World Trade Center. I was shocked and I woke myself up enough to put on my glasses so I could see what was going on. I shook my husband awake (just my boyfriend at that time) and we watched the news live. As we were watching the coverage we watched the 2nd plane crash live. I have never seen anything happen so scary before in my life. I felt like I was in a movie…a very horrible and scary movie! As we learned that it was a terrorist attack we began to get more afraid. We weren’t able to tear ourselves away from the coverage. Cell phones were down all over, and I couldn’t get a hold of my mom in upstate NY, or my sister in Philadelphia. I just wanted to hear their voices and know that they were ok. My husband heard from his good friend who worked down on wall street at the time. He told us that he had to run away to not get hit by the debris that fell. An amazing thing was, that if you went to the top of my dorm tower you could see the smoke rising from the towers. It hit close to home on how close we were to the actual event. I in no way shape or form was in any condition to attend class that day.
That video brings those emotions up once again, but it reminded me of something bigger. You never know what’s around the corner so shouldn’t you plan for the unexpected? I am not saying one should plan for another 9/11 (God forbid), but accidents and tragedies do happen.
How do you want to be remembered as a parent? spouse? sibling? significant other?
Being Remembered Financially
I can’t begin to tell you how to live your life to be remembered as a better person. I like to think I’d be remembered in a good light, but I have absolutely no soapbox to preach on. That being said, I can tell you there is a tool that every parent, spouse and significant other should look into and it is one I talk about ad nauseum:
LIFE INSURANCE
Life insurance provides for your wife/husband, your children, your significant other when you can’t. It can provide for housing, schooling, health scares, the ability to create a stay at home spouse, etc. I have said in the past if you don’t have life insurance and you are a parent you may be a jerk (there is obviously a cost discussion, but if you have a $100 a month smart phone and no $20/mo term policy don’t bitch to me about money).
Take today as a remembrance to those that you may have lost during that terrible day…and then tomorrow call someone who can help in case you something happened to you!
