Judy Hennig is complacent, in a sort of fog, since the death of her beloved husband of 34 years, Fred Hennig, on Dec. 29. She learned the hard way how life unravels.
Her story is my nightmare. As a woman in my 50s like Hennig, am I prepared financially if my husband gets sick or dies? Would I not only lose my best friend and partner, would I lose my home? How would I pay medical bills? Do I have enough life insurance? If I get sick, will my hubby be able to pay the bills and keep our home?
Kristi O’Harran / The Herald
And if one of us lingers, how do we pay for caregivers and prescription drugs?
When she met Fred Hennig at a Bible study class, she couldn’t stand him. Couldn’t stand his yellow Oldsmobile 442. And he thought she was a snob.
Once past first impressions, they fell madly in love.
On their third wedding anniversary, Fred Hennig had a seizure, and surgeons removed a noncancerous brain tumor. He recovered, and the couple went on to raise three beautiful children in Lake Stevens.
Fred Hennig was active with the Lake Stevens Junior Athletic Association, the Lake Stevens Lions Club, the Lions Youth Exchange Foundation, the Boy Scouts of America and was the first volunteer president of the Lake Stevens Community Food Bank.
Harold Ronnestad of Lake Stevens said Fred Hennig could always be counted on to do a good job for the Lion’s Club.
“He liked to do hard work,” Ronnestad said. “He did a lot for our community.”
Life was good – great even – but the tumor came back a decade ago. Fred Hennig gave up volunteer work as his health deteriorated and became homebound. Ronnestad said he tried to keep up until he was confined to a wheelchair.
Suffering from seizures and headaches, Fred Hennig left his job and qualified for Social Security disability payments. The couple’s financial matters are none of my business, but Judy Hennig was gracious enough to share her story.
The couple barely kept their heads above water by refinancing their home.
They had Medicare at the end, but medical bills filtered through, and Judy Hennig still gets medical bills in the mail. By stretching her salary from her job with the Lake Stevens School District and the federal money, they held on.
“We always pulled through,” Judy Hennig said. “Bankruptcy was always the last resort, but we didn’t do it.”
Fred Hennig, a sales rep, was kept on the payroll at his last job during the first year of his disability, but finally had to be terminated. Both Fred and Judy had medical plans with their employers, but those only went so far. He was able to use half his meager life insurance policy and tapped what he had put away for retirement.
“Creditors are nice – at first,” said Judy Hennig, 57. “We dipped wherever we could and tried to keep up.”
Through the last nine years, Fred Hennig, 63 when he died, staunchly fought his battle against tumors and depression. He was hospitalized at Thanksgiving and died just before New Year’s Day.
It shocked his wife. Though her husband had been in and out hospitals for years, he had always pulled through. Books she read about grieving say not to make major decisions the first year following the death of a spouse.
Judy Hennig doesn’t have the luxury of a year.
She read the handwriting on the financial wall and is selling her Lake Stevens home of 33 years by herself. If anyone is interested, she is asking $200,000 for the three-bedroom, 1.5-bath rambler with a covered deck on a fenced quarter-acre.
Her grown children are helping get the house ready for sale. She will need to find a place to rent for $500 a month or less.
“I don’t know where I will go,” she said. “I don’t know where God will tuck me in.”
Let’s hope her 1991 Oldsmobile keeps running. She walks to work to save on car expenses. It will be three years before she begins getting half her husband’s Social Security.
At her rental, she’ll keep the heat turned down and run the dishwasher only once a week.
“That is just the way it is,” Hennig said. “There is nothing I can do about it.”
Is there anything that other 50-somethings can do before a similar situation drains their bank accounts and retirement plans? More insurance? Better benefits? Marry someone healthy and rich?
“This could happen to anyone,” Judy Hennig said. “It doesn’t do any good to get angry.”
But we get nightmares.
Columnist Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451 or oharran@heraldnet.com.
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