Legacy MattersRarely talked about, "blood money" is not an uncommon response to insurance money received after the death of a loved one. Some won't ever spend it, others give it away, still others, like Kathy Trant, spend it foolishly.
When her husband died in the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, relatives, friends and strangers opened their hearts and their wallets to Kathy Trant, donating millions of dollars to Trant and her three children.
The money was meant to compensate for the income Dan Trant would have used to support his family for years to come. But to Trant it represented blood money, money that couldn't make up for what she had lost.
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"It's blood money that I don't want," Trant said. "I want my husband back."
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"The issue of survival guilt is a big one," said April Lane Benson, psychologist and author of the book "I Shop Therefore I Am." "People who lost someone on 9/11 feel a total lack of control for a long period of time. That's why they say, 'I might as well blow everything I have. I could be the next one to go.'"
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Posted by Jill Fallon at June 14, 2005 2:08 PM | Permalink