Conversations in Love and Loss

When you meet Justin Shafer, you might notice his inviting smile or strong handshake. Or it could be how he lights up when he talks about Brooklyn, his wife of eight years, in between darker topics. You might notice that Justin tackles tough subjects often in his conversations. And that he’s able to do so frankly, with empathy.

For instance, he might ask you if you have life insurance. He knows most people in their 20s and 30s might need convincing.

“They’re 10 feet tall, they’re bulletproof, and nothing is ever going to happen to them,” Justin says. “But [Brooklyn and I are] a living, breathing example, because a 30-year-old, ultra-healthy female is not supposed to be diagnosed with cancer. And she was.”

“There was no warning. Our life was flipped upside down.” 

At first it didn’t seem to be that big of a deal. But Brooklyn, who works for Joshua ISD, kept feeling a lump high in her chest. At a routine checkup in December 2017, she decided to mention it to her doctor.

Within two weeks of that conversation, Brooklyn had gone from her first mammogram to a biopsy to a bilateral mastectomy, to target the aggressive form of cancer that was growing in her breast.

“There was no warning, no symptoms, no signs of anything,” Justin says. “Out of nowhere, our life was flipped upside down.”

A lot of hard conversations followed that. Brooklyn remembers her husband looking at the surgeon and asking, “I lost my dad to cancer. Am I going to lose my wife?”

Photo courtesy of Justin Shafer

“I watched a wife become a widow in the blink of an eye.”

In January 2010, Justin’s father, Randy, died from complications associated with cancer after a long battle.

“It was a lot like deja vu, I guess,” Justin says. “It’s been nine years [since my dad’s death], and I don’t know if I’m any more over it than I was nine years ago.”

His father had long held a life insurance policy with Texas Farm Bureau Insurance, which protected Justin’s mother, although it didn’t shield her from difficult decisions in the months after his death — the careful financial planning ahead of her and the day-to-day adjustments of living alone.

“I watched a wife become a widow in the blink of an eye,” Justin says. “I carry that with me every time I go on an appointment.”

“There’s not a time I don’t think about my father’s death.”

Justin became an Agent with Texas Farm Bureau Insurance in October 2010, a little more than eight months after his father’s death.

In his role as agency manager of the Hill County offices, Justin faces the same tough conversations with his clients that he faced all those years ago, as he works with his team to give policyholders the same kind of support his family received.

He says his father’s death wasn’t his main motivation for pursuing a career as an insurance agent, but, over time, a personal connection developed.

“There’s not a time during the day I don’t think about [my father’s death] in one frame or another, because something will come up,” Justin says. “Somebody will have something happen or we’ll be dealing with a situation where it’s always on my mind.”

For Justin, what stings the most is when he can’t help someone after the death of a loved one because they didn’t have a life insurance policy.

“That’s really the hardest one for me to swallow, because it is too late at that point,” Justin says. “I firmly believe that if people only truly knew what insurance could do for them or would do for them when they needed it most, they would buy all they could get a hold of today. And I think that’s just life experience.”

Photo by Elizabeth Lavin

“Finally, we took a leap of faith.”

Justin’s journey toward Texas Farm Bureau Insurance began several months before his father’s death, in 2009, when he and Brooklyn met at the wedding of friends from their days at Tarleton State University.

They dated long-distance for months. “We were doing the commuting thing, back and forth, five hours every Friday and every Sunday,” Justin says.

At the time, he lived in Kerrville, where he was a store manager for Sherwin-Williams, and Brooklyn lived in Burleson. But Justin knew he wanted to build a life with Brooklyn. He needed to move closer.

He tried to get a transfer to be closer to Brooklyn, but it didn’t manifest. “We started looking around and pursuing other avenues, and finally we took a leap of faith,” Justin says.

On a whim, he reached out to his Texas Farm Bureau Insurance Agent, not knowing he had recently become an agency manager in Cleburne. He had insured Justin’s Kerrville home and had become a good friend. When he interviewed Justin for the job, they found it was a match.

Justin left the interview with a job offer and drove straight to his next stop. “Oh, I asked [Brooklyn’s] dad if I could marry her.”

By December 2010, the couple was married and settling into a new life together.

Photo courtesy of Justin Shafer

“I spent a lot of time trying to figure out a way we could trade places.”

The breast cancer diagnosis came as a shock. It seemed too soon and too unexpected. “I spent a lot of the first several days and even the first several weeks trying to figure out a way we could trade places,” Justin says.

Together, the couple discussed the journey before them and made a commitment to keep moving forward.

“We made a decision early on to be open and transparent about it instead of hiding from it or trying to act like it didn’t exist,” Justin says. “It’s gonna be what you make it. You can’t change the circumstance, and you can’t wish it away.”

They were fortunate. Last May, after about 22 weeks and 16 treatments, Brooklyn successfully finished chemotherapy. She says she “feels better now than I did before I knew I had it.”

When talking about life insurance, it’s easy for Justin to put himself in his policyholders’ shoes. He’s been there, too.

“We take care of the promise that we made to you.”

“To a lot of people, you’re talking about something that is a ‘what if,’” he says. “But where I’m coming from, I’m looking at it from the standpoint of I’ve lived it.”

Justin brings that understanding to his work every day. He works hard to have those tough conversations. He educates clients on their life insurance options and points out their weak spots.

“If you don’t have the coverage you think you have, or if you don’t have the coverage you better have in this day and age, you can definitely leave yourself exposed when that time comes,” Justin says.

Most of all, he wants to be there for people, because he knows what they’re going through. “When you need [your insurance], we want to make sure that we’re there for you, and we take care of the promise that we made to you.”

Texas Farm Bureau Insurance offers a variety of life insurance policies that provide coverage when your family needs it most. Ask Agents like Justin to guide you through these life-changing decisions.

Coverage and discounts are subject to qualifications and policy terms and may vary by situation. Life insurance products are offered through the Southern Farm Bureau Insurance Company. © 2019 Texas Farm Bureau Insurance