Hi my name is Julia and welcome to blackandaging.com Where we discuss taking care of elders in the African American community. This blog was birthed after my partner and I took care of his mother last year before she passed away. But this journey started even before last year when my he made the decision to move his mother in with him four years prior. Which meant taking on her caregiving needs full time. There were situations that he and I both learned during this process that I realize others are confronting with this same situation so we decided to share our experience here. In order to give other folks in the community of caregiving a chance to share there experiences and thoughts how it is to care for your love ones at home and the triumphs and challenges you face in doing so. As the tag line says historically we in the black community keep our families at home and care for them. That care includes spiritually, emotionally, and financially.
With September being National Life Insurance Awareness Month. I would like to talk about the importance of this financial aspect being in place when taking care our loved ones. And the conversations as a community we should be having with our parents if they haven’t had this conversation with us. I remember growing up with the insurance man coming to our house every month or two to collect my mothers premiums. And she having the conversation with me when I got older when I had my first child about calling the insurance man to put more insurance on myself and my small child.
But last year when my partner and I were confronted with the task of dealing with his mothers passing and she didn’t have life insurance to help deal with this financial obligation I was able to see how things had to be dealt with from an aspect of the survivors having to provide resources to deal with this situation. And we asked ourselves how many others are dealing with this. Historically since we care for our love ones at home are we in financial positions to deal with the impact of someone passing without this resource? In the black community in recent years cremation has become something we have adopted I think for two reason one being some of our elders are requesting it my partner’s mother did she had a advance healthcare directive she had requested this in advance. And the other reason being if a person doesn’t have life insurance the cost is much less than burial which can run over 10,000 dollars or more. Basic cremation can run over 2500 we paid a little over 900 dollars. Cremation is something that we didn’t opt for as folks in the black community because it was always remarked that we as a community only bury our loved one not burn them up. This subject is not one that folks in are community tend to sit around the dinner table and talk about for one because of the subject matter. And two speaking about you or your love ones mortality is difficult. So we want to hear your stories and experiences about this. We are listening.
Peace and Blessings