Dennis Danduran
Dennis and Jodie Danduran worked hard to create a storybook life for themselves. It began with Dennis, dressed as a prince and riding a white horse, proposing marriage on a Southern California beach. Unable to have children of their own, they adopted five in five years.
Before the kids arrived they moved from California to Colorado to escape big-city life. Dennis, a manager for an overnight shipping firm, stayed behind while waiting for a job transfer. It never came, so for three years Dennis commuted home every other weekend aboard his employer's cargo jets.
On Christmas Day Dennis came home for good to start a new job in Colorado. "We were really excited about being a family again," he recalls. Four weeks later, Jodie died suddenly of an aneurism. She was 39.
Though Jodie was a stay-at-home mom, she and Dennis had wisely determined that her contributions to the family were financially significant. Jodie ran the household, tracked the finances, sewed clothes for the children and home-schooled their eldest son. So when they met with their agent, Michael McGranahan, FICF, they bought as much insurance as they could afford, with Jodie getting almost as much as Dennis. During an annual review the following year, they took their agent‘s advice and increased their coverage.
The insurance money will cover the kids' college costs and is allowing Dennis to provide the children with the opportunities he and Jodie always hoped they‘d have. Because of the tremendous support he gets from Jodie‘s parents, who live nearby, Dennis is able to work nights and be with his children during the day. The insurance has also given him the option to hire live-in help. It's not the storybook ending he and Jodie hoped for. But the family will carry on, and there are more chapters yet to be written.
|
