Live and Death
I apologize in advance for this article and the need to write it.
This has been one of the most trying and upsetting years of my career. I have written about many things over my career as a union delegate. Some articles just dealt with the usual work related issues. Many have been close to heart issues that have rattled me to the core. I wear my heart on my sleeve and have no problem speaking about any issue. I do not know if that is good or bad, but that is who I am. I truly care.
As many know, one of my members, Mike Martinez, had his life turned upside down when he hit be a car driven by a person who was under the influence of narcotics. Mike lost his leg and had numerous injuries from that April 11, 2017 incident. Mike is a great guy who I considered a friend and his incident took my breath away for months. Gratefully he has a great family with many friends to help him.
Right after that my father became ill and passed away in August. It was another hard hit that shook me. As an only son my dad was a beacon for me and as he passed so did a part of me.
On February 12, 2018 another carrier I am associated with out of Plainview was involved in a motor vehicle accident. Rob Rotundo was only 52 years old when he was injured. He lay in a coma for four weeks finally succumbing to his injuries on March 12th. It was a very trying time for his only daughter and his sisters. To this date nobody knows what happened. This incident has rocked my world even further. Another good guy with a beautiful family.
All of these incidents only go to show how frail life is. You come to work in one piece and you want to go home the same way. Most of us have family waiting at home. We support and protect those family members. I guess I am trying to say that life is precious. You have to take care and stop rushing through it because you never know when it may turn on you. As I have stated on numerous occasions in the past, this is only a job; a means to an end. There is no need to take shortcuts and to rush. You are a number to management and are easily replaced. So come to work, do your job professionally and safely, then go home to your family. Family is the one real important thing in life; don’t waste it.
I want to touch on an associated issue. I know that Tom Siesto has written about this in his column this month. It deals with who you have as your beneficiary. In the past 14 months I have observed three separate instances where a member has passed away. In each case the member was divorced for many years but never changed their beneficiary designee. That means that the ex-spouse was entitled to the monies in the employee’s thrift account as well as their life insurance policies. This could run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. I have observed children being cut out their fair share. I have watched a much hated ex-spouse get all of the money and the family (brothers, sisters, moms and dads) get nothing. So I must implore you, when you have a change of life issue such as a divorce or maybe the birth of a child, update your beneficiaries. That includes your USAPS life insurance, your Thrift savings account, your life insurance through the union and any other insurance you may have. We seem to let this go and bury it away in the back of our minds, but as this article shows, you never know when your life may change. Take the time to update your beneficiaries today!
