Collin Kartchner passed away...

Such a shocking loss and I feel terrible that's it's something of a public thing. This is one of those times I think putting the phone down, or having the phone taken away, might serve a person better. I saw her post after Shimelle shared about his death and honestly I can't imagine... having to/choosing to share that raw pain with a bunch of strangers.

I saw she said something about something "inside his body" which would track with an aneurysm of some kind. Some extended family members lost their daughter that way. 8 years old, had a splitting headache one December day, and within a few hours she had died. You just never know. It could happen to any of us.

I won't be donating, but I do feel for them. Hopefully she'll have lots of support, more than most suddenly single parents.

I feel so badly for her and her kids. Perhaps he has a family history of aneurysms and couldn’t get life insurance. My husband couldn’t get it because of a genetic issue in his family. 

Sometimes you think you have all of your i’s dotted and t’s crossed and you are blindsided. It happened with my mom’s estate. We went over it several times beforehand, with an accountant and a lawyer and we still got a bad surprise after she died.

Omgoodness. Very sad for all the family.

I can't comprehend the number of young deaths in a few of the Mormon families I know via the scrap world:

Freckled Fox's DH
Teresa Collin's DH
Heidi Swapp's DS
Whippy Cake

So sad.

I’ve only gotten life insurance through employers because I know I can’t pass medical underwriting. (For my job, if you signed up when first eligible, you could get up to a certain amount — I’m probably over insured but it was my only chance). One might be surprised what can knock you out of consideration. Perhaps there’s some kind of high risk type policy, I’m not aware (no dependents,have insurance through my employer). Not excusing someone not having it as the provider for 5, but offering perspective.

They have upped the amount to 200,000.  They are already close to that amount.  

I am so sorry for her and her kids. I can't imagine that level of devastation because she was clearly over the moon for him.

I find the lack of life insurance super disheartening considering her own Dad passed away and left a young family, if I'm not mistaken. Liz posted about him a few times back when she blogged regularly. I know nobody expects this to happen, especially if it was an aneurysm, but damn. I hope they receive more help than just the GoFund me, even if it is at over $170K atm.

I saw someone asked about her working at AC, she had a line out this past summer? Not sure if she was dropped like Shimelle though? I'll never forget her first few lines with them, they were stunning.

Ooh, that's my cue. Plugging the US tax-exempt charity Modest Needs here because you can help with just a few dollars to save someone on the brink of losing everything due to a small, unexpected expense/life situation, the opposite of what's happening to the Kartchners right now. Modest Needs gives small grants to low-income American households who can't afford a "small" financial upset that could lead to them losing their job, their home, their health. It's for those who don't have a huge online following, who don't live a glamorous life, who don't have a story worth being told by the media. We're talking car breaking down, airplane ticket to interview for a job that they're perfectly qualified for, paying the electricity bill, a wheelchair, income for a couple of months as they transition between jobs. The low-income households are heavily vetted. This is just an awesome charity working in the shadows where it's non-sensational but very real: 28% of Americans don't have an emergency fund and it's not their fault or their desire for a flashy lifestyle that leads them there. 40% of Americans can't cover a $1000 emergency expense and that's probably even more now with the pandemic. Many simply can't afford to put anything away and live paycheck to paycheck. If you have a few dollars to spare, Modest Needs could very well be one of the candidates to consider on your charity list.

I’m single, no dependents, and have life insurance.

Burying someone costs money and I’m not sticking my family with that bill.

Word. A good start will be NOT to get remarried within a few mos of their DH death which both FF and TC did. I hope and believe DL is wiser than that.

I admit judging a couple recently that did the same - took lots of vacations every year and had no real savings and no life insurance when he died, even with 2 children.

I was thinking how glad I am that DH and I prioritized saving over trips.

I am not saying I feel no sympathy for them, of course.

I appreciate your perspective. We have some medical issues that make our premiums higher than average. At one point we paid 8-9% of income toward our life insurance premiums. That’s a lot. Our children each have a small policy as well, god forbid for burial costs and to ensure coverage into adulthood (if conditions were to arise). Too busy for life insurance is just lazy. And if you can’t get insurance then you invest and save. Know how many beach vacations I’ve taken with my family? Zero.

There are so many families in dire need of help right now. Cancer. Covid death of sole provider. It goes on and on. The fact that an influencer family gets $200k overnight for the death of a man who in the past was kind of a jerk just does not sit well with me.

Lest we forget, the money raised through GFM will be far more than what is needed to cover his burial expenses. Considering how large a donation it will be, I can't see how she won't pay taxes for it as though it were income. Can a specialist like lasteve1 weigh in on this? 

Yes, there are fees and everything depends on the country in which the collection is made for legal reasons. In France, it's 0% for GFM and 2,9% for the transaction with an additional 0,25€ per donation. It can add up quickly especially if people donate small amounts. 

In the US, there are two options (x): 

I hope that one of the first decisions she makes is to buy a life insurance plan, assuming she doesn’t already have one. And update her will. I can’t imagine how devastated she must be from the stunning loss. And the burden of responsibility she must feel must be overwhelming too. The education costs alone for four kids are staggering.