After reading my last post about mental health exclusions in travel insurance policies, a colleague told me his insurance story.

His 20th wedding anniversary was coming up in six months, and he wanted to surprise his wife with a getaway. But he felt uneasy about making any plans too far in advance because his mother had just completed chemotherapy. She urged him to buy the tickets and even insisted on paying for the trip as an anniversary present. So he booked an air and land package for six days in London and took out a trip cancellation policy, just in case.

Two months before the scheduled London trip, his mother went back to the doctor for a follow-up and learned that the cancer had spread. He cancelled the trip. His mother died six weeks later.

The insurance company refused reimbursement for the cancelled trip because his mother died from a condition that predated the terms of the agreement.

The dying woman had the right idea: Don’t put off doing things you want to do because something might happen. It’s a shame the insurance company didn’t see it that way.

But, lesson learned. In honor of his mother’s memory and because he knew she would have wanted him to go, my colleague booked another trip to London. This time he didn’t purchase travel insurance.