A first-person anecdote from life insurance salesperson Timothy Schucker describing a house visit where he meets a couple; the husband reveals he has six months to live and the wife is unable to afford even the cheapest guaranteed-issue life insurance (about $40/month). The story emphasizes the emotional impact on the salesperson and his decision to stop accepting "I'll think about it" from prospects.
I only have six months left to live. I go to this guy's house. I show up in the mailer. He says he won't talk to me, just to wait for his wife outside. She'll be home in about three minutes. Lady pulls into the driveway. I end up getting connected with her. We're talking and like, hey, oh, my gosh, I'm so happy to see you. We need life insurance, like, now. Until I see the husband standing in the doorway saying, I only have six months left to live. This hit me right in the chest. I was like, oh, my gosh, that's serious. No wonder he couldn't talk about it. I ended up talking to the wife, and I'm like, okay, cool. Let's go. Guaranteed issue. And I find out that they can't even afford the most inexpensive option. It was only about 40 bucks a month. And it was really, really sad because this lady literally just starts sobbing on my shirt while hugging me and leaning on my shoulder, telling me she's gonna lose everything. They won't be able to afford the house. She's gonna have to move across the country to go and live with her sister. And she tells me that she ended up talking to someone two or three years ago, but since her husband's always been healthy, never drank, never smoked, never had any health issues literally at all, except not even high blood pressure, this was the time that I decided I'm never gonna let anyone tell me that they're gonna think about it ever again.
