Remembering her with warmth and always laughter.
My work with Lifecycles usually leads me to working with people caring for older loved ones. Sometimes though, I do have the privilege of working directly with the aging individual. As you can imagine; when you are working with older people, often times the relationship ends when the individual passes away. I wouldn’t say this is one of the downsides to my work because as we know death is not always a sad event. Leaving this world can come with dignity and power, seen as a life event that brings peace.
Recently I had the good fortune to be introduced to an artist, mother, grandmother, teacher and friend who struck up a working relationship with Lifecycles and the services we provide. She was a really funny vibrant woman. We spent a few afternoons together, slogging through paperwork, drinking really good coffee that she brewed for me and laughing. We laughed at the world, ourselves and our loved ones. We even joked about her declining health and all the doctors and interventions she had to deal with. She had a lot of “life” in her. Her spirit, her will whatever you want to call it was a force.
I received a phone call one morning last week that she had gone back into the hospital and suddenly past away. I was not expecting that at all. In fact she was on my list to call that day to make a plan for me to go see her to continue our work. I am sad to not have anymore time with her but I am so grateful that I was able to have her in my world even for a few hours. She brought intelligence, wit and her life experiences to me. I got a sense of who she was in this life and I hope I was able to give her back the same.
I know this is how it is sometimes, but she has left a little mark on me. A little bit of her is now in my heart. I guess she won’t need to worry about her outstanding NYC Dept of MV parking violations anymore. Its my understanding that wherever we go after here – you can park wherever you like.
It is now a few weeks later and I am sitting in her living room with her two adult children discussing how we move forward to honor her memory and dispose of her assets as she wished. They were kind enough to share a few stories with me and I was able to give them back a little piece of their mother by way of a few anecdotes about our afternoons of working together. We also were able to laugh just as I had done with their mother several weeks earlier.
Lisa Horowitz, CLU ChFC, owner and founder of Lifecycles, offers personal, holistic guidance to individuals, caregivers, and family members on the complex systems behind major-life transition issues. By providing extensive medical, legal and institutional insights and resources, Lisa can help answer questions on the most simple and cost-effective solutions to situations that include Medicare, Medicaid, long term care, health insurance, social security benefits, after life benefits, life insurance, survivor benefits, annuities, transitions to assisted living , benefits analysis, estate liquidation, and more.