Just a couple of days ago on October 11th, 2011, we remembered the death of my father which occurred in the Fall of 1979.  My father, Pablo Emilio Salazar, was a US trained commander in the Nicaraguan Army and during this time, my country’s toughest soldiers were scattered throughout North and South America hiding from the Communists, the Sandinistas.  Once our little family was safe from them and in the United States, my dad decided to get a truck full of supplies ready to take back to our country for those people who were devastated from this horrible war after the Sandinista rebels took over the capital, Managua.

When my grandmother heard of his decision to head back, she felt chills go up and down her spin.  It was during this that my grandmother for the first time stepped up to my father, the military man that he was, and ordered him to get a life insurance policy because life happens and you just never know.  This was when my father began researching and got quotes for life insurance and got a policy right before his journey back through Central America.  Thank God that he listened to her as this was the last time we saw him!  My father was kidnapped by the Sandinistas, tortured and killed.  Their hatred of him was so deep because he spent so many years in Rivas, Nicaragua keeping communism out of our country that they even shot him after he was already dead!

My mom was only 25 and I was about to turn six, my sisters only three and one.  This life insurance policy that he took out helped my mom get back on her feet in a new country with her three little girls and her mother.  It really was our saving grace at the time.  This week I’ve spent it showing my kids who their grandfather was by showing them old scrapbooks I have of him with photos from his youth to newspapers announcing his tragic death.  If you can afford life insurance (I know the economy is tough), I recommend that you take a policy out.  That is the one thing I believe every family should have because you just never know.

Daddy, I love you and miss you!  Thank you for being my hero and for loving your country so much!

Blessings,
Erika