Read the latest Bishop Speaks.

Having your say and having your way, pre-plan!

Letter to the Bishop

Bishop Moultry:

After reading your column like I've done for years, last night I had to write you and I know for a fact it will do me some good and help hopefully others who might be in the same situation I'm in  right now.

I cannot mourn the death of my mother right now because I'm trying to get the monies together to bury her. She died last week in her one bedroom apartment doing what she enjoyed doing the most, which was smoking her cigarettes. She loved smoking and even when told by her doctor five years ago to stop smoking because she had lung cancer, she continued smoking. Bishop, when she was told she had cancer, my brother and I talked to her about getting a Life Insurance Policy but she laughed saying, "I might outlive y'all, but if I don't, just toss me on the curve, I won't know,  I'll be dead."

I guess my brother and I should have got our own Life Insurance Policy on her, but with our own families [to care for] we didn't. Now she's dead and both my brother and I are trying to get the monies needed to bury her. My brother is married with four kids and he's unemployed and I'm a single mother with three kids, not even working forty hours per-week.

Bishop, I'm angry at my mother, angry at myself for not getting a Policy on her and I'm angry at the five different Funeral Homes I've called to try  to  arrange to make payments for her to have a service.

My mother had money to do everything she wanted, but she felt as if she'd never die even with her having cancer and still smoking. She always said, "Baby, I Got Faith."

What I'm going through as her oldest child I would not wish on no one. I encourage everyone to have a Life Insurance Policy so that the children, family and friends won't have to beg or try to borrow money.

Signed,

Depressed

Dear Depressed:

First, I'm so sorry to hear about your mother's passing and I'm keeping you and your family in prayer that you get the resources needed to bury your mother.

In regards to being angry, it's important to tell you that you should be angry at no one. Life is just too short to be angry. Your mother, after finding out she had cancer and really even before, should have had a Life Insurance Policy on her. Believe me, as a pastor I've buried many individuals with "Faith." A part of living is dying and that's something we all have to do with no choice sick or not sick.

Also remember that the Funeral Homes are in the business of being there for the deceased but they are a business. They have staff to pay, and so many other expenses. Also from previous experiences the Funeral Homes also know once that body is in the ground, they won't take it out even if they don't get paid from families who have promised that they would do the right thing and make their payments. Remember that old saying? "In God We Trust? Everybody else CASH!" I say this to say don't be mad at the Funeral Homes when they need and should be paid.

As a minister doing a funeral service, often an offering has to be taken up to cover expenses and this is something that's really hard to do as you want to make it seem as if the family of the deceased is not begging for a hand-out, but yet a hand up. The bottom line is that as we prepare to get up and go to work, to school, out to eat, likewise we should be prepared to DIE, not only in the spiritual sense but the physical sense as well.

Please give me a call at the church (216) 761-7100 and maybe we'll call one of the Funeral Homes on a three-way conference call and I as a minister, or even your pastor if you have one, can assist in bringing the cost down.

You can e-mail the Bishop at bishopspeaks@aol.com or check him out on Facebook under Bishop Prince J. Moultry. Look up the church website under www.intouchforchrist.com. Call the church at (216) 761-7100 or visit the church for the 11a.m. Sunday Praise Service at 969 E. 140th St. Cleveland, Ohio 44110 off St. Clair Ave in the heart of the Collinwood Community.