Over the last several years, my wife and I have received several offers for free dinners or lunches from different firms. Most of them were from financial companies offering a seminar in conjunction with a meal. The presentations were intended to show us how to wisely invest our retirement funds.
There’ve also been a few such free invitations from organizations offering us help in the Medicaid or Medicare areas. Our phones are bombarded daily with calls regarding this subject alone. I’ve picked up a few times and placed the receiver next to Jess’s cage just for grins.
Jess is our Yellow-Naped Amazon parrot, and he loves to join the conversation once a telephone is in sight. He’s kept telemarketers on the line for several minutes, rambling on about things seemingly important to him, although we often can’t understand his lingo.
Jess’s favorite telephone saying is, “Yea, uh huh,” having learned to precisely mimic these words after hearing us constantly utter such during conversations.
I’ve always been afraid to take any of these firms up on their seminars because of an incident that happened in Hawaii 40 years ago. We were on vacation and for whatever reason, Joleen and I decided to take up a pretty young Hawaiian gal’s free dinner, and timeshare-seminar offer. Thinking back, perhaps I was the one doing the accepting.
Approximately 20 of us were assembled in a conference room, and I actually believed the door was locked behind us after entering. There were restrooms in this room, and I’m sure that was part of their plan to keep people in. Tag-team sales representatives kept their spiel going for at least two hours with promises of food afterwards.
Over time, some attendees gave in to the high-pressure sales tactics and signed the dotted line. Joleen and I didn’t cave. We eventually got up and left with one sales agent following us to the door. Thankfully, it wasn’t locked. We never did get to eat.
A few weeks ago, we received an invitation to a dinner from a local Havasu funeral home, Lietz-Fraze. Joleen and I used them over the years for Carly and Simon, our pets, and we were very satisfied with how they were treated.
The free dinner at Shugrue’s Restaurant was in conjunction with a seminar for final plans regarding our deaths. That wasn’t something totally new to Joleen and me, as we’d purchased burial spots in Kansas some 20 years ago, along with having a headstone made.
I was hesitant to attend at first, but at my wife’s prodding, I decided to see what could be learned that I didn’t already know. Neither Joleen nor I realized that the financial responsibility of a burial can be taken care of beforehand, without the children or grandchildren getting involved.
Host, Marie Lucinda Anderson, was most cordial, and unlike the Hawaii timeshare seminar, there was no pressure from her to sign a dotted line. Most unusual was that we were fed first, with the grilled chicken and fresh steamed vegetables most succulent. Dessert was over the top.
Also seated at our table, Mike and Janet Queyrel evidently thought the same, with it turning out they went to the same church as us, along with having similar interests. Mike was into hotrods.
Marie told a sad story about a father being murdered and the resulting trauma afterwards, especially with relatives all trying to dictate who got what, along with how the burial should be handled. Tragically, that tale involved Marie Lucinda Anderson’s own dad. During her college years, Marie decided to enter the funeral counseling field to help others not go through what she did.
The main thing I came away with from Marie’s presentation was knowing that now, while I’m still alive, I can avert any challenges to my or my wife’s last wishes, although I highly doubt my children would be the ones doing so. It would probably come in the form of meddling state lawyers.
Joleen and I decided on a plan that locks in the cost of burial even if we live another 30 years or longer. All documents are legally binding and are now safely locked in a safe. Our children or grandchildren won’t have to be involved with anything, as everything’s laid out exactly as we dictated. The free personal planning guide that Marie gave us was most useful in orchestrating things.
The seminar was most helpful in placing us on the right track in making these final plans. This decision has allowed us to be “free birds,” so to speak, and I’m glad my wife talked me into going. The only reason we may not need this paperwork is if Jesus returns first and we’re raptured out of here while still alive.
Not being ones to gamble on this happening, we made the right decision!
I like to write junk... 