Dear LPG, 

I was reading about random acts of kindness on your pages about two days before I found myself with a bit of a relevant quandary all of my own.  

Everyone has friends and we also have acquaintances; I am talking about those people you met pre-pandemic but that you have perhaps spent a little more time talking to on the phone when there was not a lot else to do during the stay-at-home days of the last couple of years.  But while some of those telephone friendships have blossomed, others have fallen away a little as we got out and about again.

I received a call from one such person the other day who told me a really sad story.  There had been a death in his family, and he had taken out life insurance, but the insurance company concerned had told him that it would take at least a month to pay out while the arrangements need to be paid for a lot more quickly than that.  

I think that I did what anyone would do having heard that story.  I asked if there was anything that I could do to help, and I was asked if I could lend some money to cover the short fall and bridge the gap until the insurance paid out.  While I had no reservations when it came to believing what I had heard, I have lost a substantial amount of money in the past having lent it to a person that I thought I was a lot closer to. 

I am not rich but many of us older people have some savings that are just sitting there not doing a lot, but I have also been stung before.

I am sure that I am not the only person who has been down this road, and I won’t be the last.   I have made my mind up and done what I think best, and time will tell if I did the right thing but perhaps this is something that could happen to any of us.  It could have been a family member or a complete stranger, but I think that there is some value in having a think about how you would check that the request was genuine and what you would do if you were put in a similar position at a moment’s notice.  So that if it happens to you, you won’t feel as put on the spot as I did… 

So there lies the problem…  If you found yourself with a similar predicament, what would you do?

 
GM, Lewisham 

LPG found a little advice which might be of value…

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