For the love of the team South Carolina father scores one final win with life insurance COACH TERRANCE FORD was a Michael Jordan fan and a shoe fanatic. When heart failure claimed his life May 1, 2013, he had about 200 pairs. Terrance’s wife, Modern Woodmen member Angel Ford, Cheraw, South Carolina, lined the shoes up in her kitchen after his death. She invited the players Terrance had coached over the years to come pick out a pair. She wanted them to have a tangible reminder of the man they respected so much. More than 1,500 people attended Coach Ford’s funeral, which was held in the Cheraw High School gym. They had to set up monitors in the cafeteria to accommodate the overflow of people coming to pay their last respects. “That’s just the kind of man he was,” remembers Angel. “He was always right there to help people out, to give kids a boost or to get them on the right track.” Terrance Ford’s dad died of heart disease at age 26. Terrance was always paranoid about his own heart, so he kept in good shape and visited his doctor regularly. His death shocked his family and the community. Time out Once the initial shock of her husband’s death had passed, Angel’s new reality started to sink in. She was a 34-year-old cheerleading coach and attendance clerk whose husband had always taken care of things. She didn’t even know what bills had to be paid, much less how she was going to pay them. “I was so spoiled by my husband,” Angel says. “I knew he was making payments for things, but I honestly didn’t know what they were all for. I was like, ‘Oh my God. How am I going to take care of three kids by myself?’” Then a phone call from Modern Woodmen representative Jamont McRae changed everything. Jamont hadn’t heard about Terrance’s death. He was just calling to schedule an annual financial review with the family. Like everyone else, he was shocked when Angel told him the news. “I had helped Terrance put a plan together to protect his family just two years before that,” says Jamont. “Now it was time to help fulfill his desire … and the promises Modern Woodmen had made.” Angel knew Terrance had met with Jamont. She was pregnant with her youngest daughter at the time and wasn’t sure they should be taking on another payment.
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