You couldn't plan for this if you tried. Last week, the vacation of a lifetime was sabotaged by a volcano, silent for two hundred years, that erupted under a glacier in Iceland, spewing ash into the atmosphere and grounding planes for five days over an entire continent.
The freak occurrence catches us off guard. We can’t even picture the weird things that can happen to us. The ones we can imagine, we try not to think about.
I was ruminating about this the other day when the annual premium notice for long-term care insurance arrived.
For that money, I reasoned, I could take a cruise, or an adventure travel trip, landscape the yard or redecorate the living room. Why am I paying this premium when I feel good? Do I even want to hang around if I can’t do things for myself? Wouldn’t the money be better spent investing in Berkshire Hathaway? And on, and on…..
My husband died in a freak accident. So did the daughters of two of my dearest friends. No one who suffered a traumatic loss because of random chance ever feels truly safe again.
None of my friends have LTC insurance. They’re protected by the same illusions I used to wrap myself in. Perhaps the difference between us is that they haven’t been on the loss side of a sudden freak accident. They’re not stalked by the feeling that disability or death can rob them of someone they love in an instant.
Temperament still inclines me towards optimism. In an ideal world, I’ll be vibrant and vital until my late nineties, then die quickly without pain or fuss. On the other hand, like the sleeping volcano, I could mess up the lives of other people.
In the meantime, I’ll just pay the premium.
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