Know Provisions In Insurance Plan
Dear Ann Landers: I have been a faithful reader for 35 years. A while back, I encountered a problem I do not recall ever reading about in your column, so I’m writing in the hope that my experience will help others avoid the same problem.
My husband died two years ago after a long and painful bout with cancer. We had been married 22 years and had two daughters. Imagine my surprise when I attempted to file for his insurance benefits and discovered I was not his beneficiary.
When we married, he had been divorced for two years from a marriage that had lasted less than three years. He worked for the same government agency his entire career and had filled out paperwork on his first wife when he married her. Unfortunately, he never got around to filling out new forms when he married me.
The irony is that his ex-wife, after two previous failed marriages, married a wealthy surgeon and is now queen of the tennis courts, while I am a secretary struggling to put our daughters through college. Did she keep the money he left her “by mistake”? You bet she did. Meanwhile, I’m coping, but after two years, I am still hurt and angry that my husband was so careless.
I guess the moral of the story is this. Gentlemen: Do you know who would receive your benefits if you died today? - Widowed in America
Dear Widowed: Your letter should serve as a wake-up call to all married people in my reading audience. And now a question to my readers: Does your spouse have life insurance? If not, why not? If so, do you know where the policy is? Please clip this column, and talk about it at the dinner table tonight. It could be the most important conversation you have had in a long time.
Dear Ann Landers: Here’s another letter for your Stupid Criminal file: A husband and wife decided to rob a service station. The wife held a gun on the assistant manager in the office while the husband forced the manager at gunpoint to the room where the safe was.
While alone with the wife, the assistant manager told her about the wonderful contest they were having and suggested that she enter it. She eagerly filled out an entry blank with her name, address and phone number. As soon as the couple left with the loot, the assistant manager retrieved her entry blank and notified the police. - Oklahoma City
Dear O. City: Did she win anything - other than a stretch in the slammer?
Dear Ann Landers: In a recent column, you said that since 1978, Craig Davidson of Phoenix has picked up $5,170 in loose change while jogging.
I have been running regularly for some 23 years and have also picked up some change, but the above figure does not compute. It is a very good week when I find a total of $1, but Craig would have us believe he has been finding an average of 75 cents a day, every day, for 19 years! Get real, Ann.
The only way that would make sense to me is if he is jogging past a lot of ATM machines or through some fancy Phoenix bedrooms. I’m signing my name, and you can use it if you want to. - Thomas Coffey in Chantilly, Va.
Dear Thomas Coffey: I, too, doubted his numbers, so I called his home and spoke with Mrs. Davidson. The story sounded 100 percent legit to me. Incidentally, Craig runs three hours a day and has jogged 120,000 miles since 1978. Aside from loose change, he has found a bike helmet, a power drill, a fax machine and a kitchen sink.
And now, I’d like to hear from other joggers around the world. What have you found on your daily runs?