2020
 Zander Insurance Recipient

Samuel Muturi

AMOUNT: $5,000
SCHOOL: Bridgewater State University
On August 18, 2019, six months ago, my father hung himself from the top of the stairwell in our home. His death devastated my family emotionally and financially. My sister and I are still in counseling dealing with the anger and pain of his loss and finding his body. I am still sad and angry when I think about what happened. I can only ask why and why didn’t we see this coming? My sister Lauren still will not speak of him to this day, she just goes to counseling and draws pictures, but none of him, and my father was her world. My mother has had to work three jobs to pay for my sister’s school, my fathers’ outstanding debt, legal affairs, and our daily living needs.

My parents decided that they would volunteer in Kenya for a few years, to help develop a small village his mother came from, and for my sister and I to learn to appreciate other lives and countries. But during the last two years things got rough for my dad. He had a few pieces of heavy equipment that he was using to get contracts to pave and repair roads. His workers were stealing parts off the equipment to sell. Because the equipment couldn’t work, he lost contracts, his company collapsed, and he fell into heavy debt. My father had no insurance on his company, equipment, or himself. He thought he could always cover whatever was needed.

Because he had no insurance to cover his losses, my mother, after his death ended up with over $200,000.00 of his debt on the charge cards and loans that were in both their names. There was no money in any accounts to bury him, to get us back home to America, and the company machinery was rented, later reposed.

Friends and family had to take up a collection for my fathers’ burial, to fly my mother to help with arrangements for my dad, our home, school and to get my sister back to America. The generosity of the school that I was attending allowed me to stay and finish my senior year there to graduate. A host family took me in to live with them in exchange for chores. I learned how to bake and sell brownies and cakes and us that to help with my care.

I graduate in May and will return home to Boston Ma., I have been accepted to college for the fall. Because of our hardship from my fathers’ death, I will need financial aid. My mom has nothing to contribute. If my father had insurance on his company, or life, everything would have been different. My mom would be able to help with school, she could have paid off his debt, not have to work three jobs, and help more for college. Insurance especially on parents, was a tragic lesson we learned that is needed and important.

The Life Lessons Scholarship is made possible through individual donations and corporate sponsorships. Your financial support can make a world of difference for a young person struggling to afford a college education due to the loss of a parent or guardian.

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