When life hands you lemons of ...

Only 19 days after the celebration of my 10th birthday, my mother died. Although I grew up almost half of my life without my mother, his words of encouragement about adversity-one of the many life lessons she shared with me echo my memories of her: "Prepare -you to make lemonade out of the lemons of life. "

as I matured, I became more aware of how his death acted as a catalyst for some of the challenges and burdens of my life. Specifically, I recognize now the additional costs resulting from his death: loss of income, funeral expenses, the need for after school to take care of me and a change in the professional career of my father who brings less responsibility, travel and allowance to stay close to home to take care of me

has omission key
ultimately, these financial burdens have been compounded by a key omission in the financial plans my family. my mother did not have any life insurance

other unpredictable events still affected current financial situation of my family :. providing care and support to my sick grandmother my father was unemployed for several years due to the global economic recession. As a result, we were forced to sell the house I grew up to raise money to survive.

No one can put a value on a mother. Yet if the financial plans included my family had the key ingredient of life insurance for my mother, the financial situation of my family and my academic career being now be safer. The benefits of this would have provided coverage for the payment of the funeral service, the cost of my care and supervision over the years, my college tuition and kept us in our house.

Peace of Mind
ultimately, the financial benefits of life insurance would have brought tranquility and peace of mind; thus, provide key ingredients for the lesson my mother regarding make lemonade-allowing me to finish my degree in psychology to help other grieving the loss of a parent be even more soft.

Editor's note: Hannah was the 2014 Grand Prize winner of the Test Life Lessons Scholarship Program, and received a grant of $ 15,000 to help her finish her studies. You can watch the video of his story here.