When Jackie Blanchard’s husband dies at a young age, with only enough life insurance to pay for his funeral, Jackie vowed that her young daughters, Ebony and Shanna, would be financially secure if anything were to happen to her. To keep this promise, Jackie bought the best life insurance she could afford.

Two years after purchasing her policy, Jackie was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. She invoked a provision in her policy that allowed for an early payout to a terminally ill policyholder and was able to withdraw 75 percent of the proceeds to finance a home and a car for her daughters and parents, and to prepay her funeral. She also put money away from her daughters’ college education.

Jackie dies at age 38, but her dreams for the girls are very much alive. Ebony recently graduated with honors from college, and Shanna, a senior in high school, lives with grandparents in the home her mother purchased. “Jackie wanted the girls to have the best education and the same lifestyle after she has gone,” says Jackie’s mom, Verodia. “That’s why she chose insurance, to help them along the way.”