This breaks my heart - and I fear we're going to see many more stories like this

[AZBlue]

Mass. woman kills self before home foreclosure

TAUNTON, Mass. (AP) — A 53-year-old wife and mother fatally shot herself shortly after faxing a letter to her mortgage company saying that by the time they foreclosed on her house that day, she would be dead.

Police said that Carlene Balderrama used her husband's high-powered rifle to kill herself Tuesday afternoon, shortly after faxing the letter at 2:30 p.m.

(snip)

O'Berg said Balderrama's fax read, in part, "By the time you foreclose on my house I'll be dead."

O'Berg also said a suicide note found next to Balderrama told her husband, John, and 24-year-old son to "take the (life) insurance money and pay for the house."

"I had no clue," said John Balderrama explaining that his wife handled all the couple's finances. "I'm just lost. I tell you I'm beside myself."

He said Carlene had been intercepting letters from the mortgage company and shredding them without his knowledge. He had no idea she hadn't paid the mortgage in 42 months.

"She put in her suicide note that it got overwhelming for her," he told The Associated Press in a phone interview Wednesday. "Apparently she didn't have anyone to talk to. She didn't come to me. I don't know why."

John Balderrama filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy three times from 2004 to 2006, but the courts dismissed the petitions. Debtors who declare bankruptcy under Chapter 13 generally can keep their homes while paying off their debts under a court-approved reorganization plan.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gtTadeE4t176FFMspI8Mq1PngmtgD923T4B80

[mnhtnbb]

1. Makes no sense. Life insurance doesn't pay on suicide, does it?

What a tragedy.

[AZBlue]

5. I don't think it does. Makes it even more tragic.

[MonteLukast]

7. It does if the suicide occurs two years after purchase

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_insurance

In most states. In Colorado (and about 2 others) it's one year.

Not sure where individual companies' policies factor in.

[pitohui]

16. modern medicine holds that depression/suicide is a disease, so insurers must pay

it is like any other illness, once two years have passed, then the insurer must pay if the person subsequently develops an illness that kills them, in the case of suicide, the illness in question is most often clinical depression

everyone will one day acquire some illness and die, therefore if you allow insurers to not pay out when you die from certain diseases, it just makes the whole selling of life insurance to be a scam

for many decades in the past insurers did cheat people when policy holders died by suicide but, today, it is different

two years is long enough to show that no fraud was committed, this woman did not buy the insurance planning to kill herself, she bought the insurance in better times and only later did she undergo the stress that caused her to develop the disease of clinical depression

the insurer in most states must (and should) pay since she intended no fraud, she merely had the misfortune to fall seriously ill and die, which is the entire reason for having life insurance in the first place

[ColbertWatcher]

2. Yes. It is very jarring.

But, someone has already posted it: here.

[AZBlue]

6. Sorry -

I looked for it before I posted but didn't catch it.

[ColbertWatcher]

8. It's hard to find if since the titles are hard to predict. n/t

[Ilsa]

3. Oh god, this is awful. We had a suicide in Austin during the

collection years of the failed First RepublicBank of Dallas. The borrower couldn't take it any more and offed himself. I heard the loan officer was beside himself.

I keep thinking there must be other circumstances involved, like a history of depression or something. But you never know.

I hope her soul finds peace.

[AZBlue]

4. Yes, there must have been something going on -

she kept their financial situation to herself for 3 and a half years! I just can't imagine how isolated and helpless she must have felt.

[pop goes the weasel]

9. people feel deep shame

That is why they won't talk about their financial situation even with those close to them. And they feel that no one really wants to know or is in a position to offer even advice. Go to a therapist with depression, and they will listen to you about sex, family, or religion. Mention you have money problems, and they'll just move on to asking about your relationship with your mother. It's a great taboo in our society.

[AZBlue]

10. Wow.

That's disheartening. Money problems has to be one of the greatest stressors there is and a huge factor in depression and other issues.

[undergroundpanther]

13. Yeah it is

It's like lies about money abound,who wants to be a millionaire,a lotto at every 7-11,..Gamble..dream big,go for it,buy,the american dream,Horatio Algier myths,Ugh..yet because of these LIES,and the silly PURITAN WORK ETHIC..people are taught to be ashamed to say, Hey,I am being screwed financially.

Why? Because Of THE sacred fucked up cultural MYTH dominating us..The myth of"success"=rich and the threats of failure = poverty ..that LIE gets shoved down our throats from cradle to grave so it looks NORMAL.Invisible..Does anyone ever ask What kind of success do you want,and even more important what does success mean to you really.Does it even matter if someone else is "offended" that your definition of success serves YOUR own Interests and sanity and isn't mainstream??

It only matters and becomes so damn important within the twisted context of this culture's idiotic the pay-the-rich- for-the-privilege-to-exist bullshit.People ,struggle,toil and still fail in this exploitation system stacked against them,the system that forces you to have to play the game the exploiters way or suffer.All abusers use shame and abuse to control vulnerable people,the carrot and stick bullshit..To enable a few who have more than enough to never have to struggle it means the many are put in the position to struggle to survive.Our Culture is living in a big hurtful lie.It is so wrong.

None of us CHOSE to be born, and we must share this Earth with each other and other species.Deer do not pay to eat,birds,bears and lizards don't..So why do we pay the rich humans to EAT?
We ALL should have a RIGHT to what we need to live,shelter food etc.
This should be about meeting all of our BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS,but somehow basic human rights faded as life became more about competing,struggling,owning,controlling,exploiting,each other to survive, within the parameters of an exploitative abusive social belief system,than taking care of each other. Financially insecure people feel shame,and vulnerable on top of wondering if they'll survive....So being less than successful and the massive systemic exploitation of the human race by a few sociopathic ultra rich thugs and the classwar these thugs create so they don't have to struggle at all, became so painful to face up to it got tabooed.

[MonteLukast]

14. It's doubly bad when the *therapist* can't even help you.

I don't trust a lot of them anyway, so many being on the take from Big Pharma and all.

It's not the moral compromise per se, but that shilling and whoring for drugs is required if these shrinks want to succeed. On Wall Street they're likely required to be greedy bastards.

:cry: :puke:

[undergroundpanther]

11. That's why

The system of Pay to exist,is WRONG.
There are basic needs to ensure survival.SHELTER is one of them.
Who asks to be born? Then why do we have to pay some greedy fucker who has plenty already for the"privilege" of having the very things we need to survive for? This pay-to-exist system is breaking people down because it is SICK and EVIL and Wrong.

I feel so bad for that woman.The person preying upon her basic human needs should have been the one getting the bullet,not her.IF this society had any sense of ethics and justice.
I HATE this fucking greedy selfish,callous,inhuman culture.It's so bizarre it will kill or let good people die to protect certain stupid popular cultural beliefs and lies,and this fucking casino capitalism It's SICK!
Profit is getting something for nothing,and Usury is another word for theft,the rich pigs get something for nothing all the time because middle class people believe the crap that keeps them trapped in a sickening pay-to-exist exploitation system,the exploiters invented.

[calimary]

12. Well, phil gramm ought to feel pretty satisfied. After all, these people were just

whiners.

:mad:

[AZBlue]

15. I'm sure the family will be glad to know that their pain is really just imaginary.

:banghead:

[calimary]

17. Does that just make you want to throw up or what?

Preferably - all over phil gramm. FUCKING BASTARD.

I hope they finally nail his rat-fucker ass on income tax evasion. That's how they finally got Al Capone.

[calimary]

18. This is so DAMNED AWFUL.

Just AWFUL.

Go ahead mcsame. Keep complaining and riding around in the golf cart with the bush geezer and talk about how jealous Barack Obama makes you. Then go figure out which of your - what is it? Eight houses? Eleven houses - that you and cindy own? Houses you probably bought with her money - that you were lucky enough to marry into after you jilted your crippled wife?

How far down in the bowels of HELL should we look for you when the time comes?