It's my
pleasure to welcome Kathleen M. Rehl to the Women's Writing Circle. An author and highly-respected financial planner for widows,
Kathleen shares a widow's "memoir moment" in her guest post.
I met
Kathleen last month at the Women's Voices Women's Visions symposium in Saratoga
Springs, NY. We immediately connected and shared stories. ~ Susan
***
Tom died of liver cancer on February 12, 2007. (We widows always remember the
death date.) He and I were married for 19 years. We had a blended family,
including my son from my prior marriage and Tom's two sons. We didn't have
kids of our own together.
When
Tom died, I was devastated initially. That's because he was my
everything—husband, playmate, business partner, best friend, a loving
stepfather of my child, and a wonderful cheerleader for my success as a
financial planner. He was truly my soul mate.
I had to find a new passion and purpose after Tom's death. That's what led to my writing Moving Forward on Your Own: A Financial Guidebook for Widows and to helping teach professionals how to work effectively with widows. This work is my calling, my personal ministry. Assisting others has helped to heal my own grief after Tom's death. I am blessed.
I had to find a new passion and purpose after Tom's death. That's what led to my writing Moving Forward on Your Own: A Financial Guidebook for Widows and to helping teach professionals how to work effectively with widows. This work is my calling, my personal ministry. Assisting others has helped to heal my own grief after Tom's death. I am blessed.
****
I saw it immediately as I drove into my garage after returning from an enjoyable evening out with friends. There it was — rusty red water, slowly snaking across the sloping concrete floor.
My
eyes followed the meandering mess back to its source. My hot water heater was
hemorrhaging a nasty fluid from a top valve. The stuff slithered down the side
of the tank, leaving a rusty streak before hitting the floor and spreading out.
YUCK!
My
first thought was, “Am I jinxed or what?”
That’s because just a few days before, at 2 AM in the morning my home
security system malfunctioned. This set off an ear-splitting alarm and
simultaneously sent a “panic” code to the Sheriff. Within minutes a law
enforcement officer was at my front door . . . with me explaining that I was
OK. Just a false alarm, which necessitated a service call the following day. And the week before, my computer went on the
blink. That resulted in a repair technician’s visit.
So,
as I watched that red rusty water flowing, I immediately thought about
contacting yet another fix-it guy. Before going to bed I looked for a plumber on
Craig’s list and checked the yellow pages. Too many choices and too late at
night, so I finally just went to sleep.
Next
morning I woke up hoping that maybe I had imagined the problem or that the
water heater had miraculously healed itself overnight. No such luck. Peeking
into the garage, I saw that the rusty water was oozing even faster from the
water heater. Better make a decision soon, I decided, before the tank might
blow like a geyser.
But
just as I was about to select a plumber at random from the yellow pages, I
heard a guardian angel whisper in my year, “Check
the warranty. There’s a file in the green cabinet.” So I did just that and miraculously found the
water heater manual, including a phone number to call! I contacted the
manufacturer and to my delight learned that my warranty had four months to go
before expiration. The helpful service rep put me in touch with a local
plumber, who came to my house that same afternoon. He efficiently replaced my
water heater with a brand new unit for free, with only a small service call fee. Within a short time beautiful clean, hot
water was flowing from the house faucets again.

I’ve
been blessed with many good “repair folks,” in my life and I’m grateful for
them. I hope you have these resources to lean on when you need them, too. And
I’ll bet there are even times when you’ve been a repair person for somebody
else and have helped them, also.
Now
. . . if I can just keep things working right for the next few weeks I’ll be
very happy! ~ 'Rusty Red Water' Moving Forward on Your Own: A Financial Guidebook for Widows
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Kathleen M.
Rehl, Ph.D., CFP®, CFT™ is a leading authority
on widows and their financial issues. She shares insightful experience and
expertise through her speaking, writing and mentoring. A widow herself,
Kathleen is passionate about inspiring her “widowed sisters” in transition and
their advisors. She wrote the multi-award winning book, “Moving Forward on Your Own: A Financial Guidebook for Widows.” Her
work has been featured in The New York
Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Kiplinger’s, and many other
publications. The U.S. Army also uses her guidebook in their Survivor Outreach
Services centers worldwide.
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