THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 17, 1994 TAG: 9408160132
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Around Town
SOURCE: Linda McNatt
LENGTH: Long : 102 lines
So, whatever happened to Lois Haynes?
I'll tell you. She's going by an alias now and is in a witness protection program.
Not really.
Lois is the woman who, for more than a decade, was the resident photographer in downtown Smithfield. She had a special talent for sitting naked babies in bowls and taking adorable pictures of them.
Back then, she used her maiden name - Haynes, she said, because that was the name she was known by in the town where she grew up. Her parents, at the time she was first starting that business, lived in Carrollton. Lois still lives there with her mother.
She came back to this area from Washington, D.C., after her husband died in 1975. She came home with little idea about what she was going to do.
She got into photography because it was something she had always enjoyed and done well.
``Photography was my dad's hobby,'' Lois said. ``And I was always taking pictures.''
She worked out of her parents' home for about five years and then moved into the little studio downtown.
But it got to be hard work. It meant lugging around heavy equipment, spending a lot of time on her feet and, because of the small studio, it often meant moving furniture to change sets.
``The work was very physically hard,'' Lois said. ``There was so much lifting. I just couldn't do all of that lifting anymore.''
February a year ago, Lois closed her studio and started looking for a new career. She thought about insurance, she said, because she had worked in that business before and enjoyed it.
And that's when she went back to her married name - Tapner. Now, she uses all of her names - Lois Haynes Tapner - on a business card that also tells us that she is a marketing representative for the Frieden General Agency, John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company.
But it doesn't tell the whole story. Actually, it's quite interesting.
Lois is selling long-term care insurance. That's something like hospitalization, except it pays for home care, assisted living or nursing home care, when one needs it.
I didn't know such a thing existed, I told Lois. And I told her about a comment I had made to my eldest daughter a few weeks ago, when we went out to dinner one night.
On the front door of the local steakhouse, there was a sign advertising an upcoming ceramics class. Now, it's not that I don't like ceramics. I just don't like doing them.
``Sunny,'' I said, (I'm not sure why.) ``if you ever put me in a nursing home, make sure they don't have a ceramics program. They'll make me paint ashtrays.''
She assured me she wouldn't, and we went on with dinner. Funny how thoughts like that sometimes pop into your mind when you're over 40.
Lois said she had thought about it ever since her father had a stroke about 17 years ago. After 13 years of being at home, unable to care for himself, he died. Had they put him in a nursing home, she said, it would have wiped the family out financially.
Nursing homes, she said, cost about $100 a day now. Those with ceramics are probably slightly less. But anybody's arithmetic tells you that it can add up to a whopping amount.
``My mother would have had to give up her entire estate to put daddy in a nursing home,'' Lois said. ``Two of five people will have to go into a nursing home. It's like giving up a fraction to save your assets.''
In my case, I'd probably have to ask, ``What assets?''
But it certainly makes sense to hear Lois talk about it. The persons purchasing this kind of insurance can choose the kind of long-term care they want to receive. If they want to stay at home for as long as possible, they can make that clear. And if, like me, they don't want to paint ashtrays, they can say so.
Lois' product is recommended for folks from 40 to 84 - the age limit. And there are few health problems that would preclude somebody from being insured for this long-term care.
``I have it on myself,'' Lois said. ``What I have, I want my son to get. I chose to work for John Hancock because I think they have the best plan.''
It's a need that the Clinton administration has recognized, Lois said. But it's not included in the proposed Clinton health care plan. Mrs. Clinton, however, has hinted that the plan might include a tax credit for folks who want this kind of insurance.
The younger you are when you apply, the less the premium. The premiums start at about $800 a year.
Well, now that we all know what happened to Lois, the next challenge was mine. I had to take a picture of this photographer.
``All right, Lois,'' I said. ``Take off all your clothes and sit in a bowl.''
``I'm not sure anybody really wants to see that,'' she said, laughing.
Actually, she looks great, and she really seems enthusiastic, happy about what she's doing.
If you want to know more about Lois' new career, and if, like me, you've vowed never to paint ashtrays, give her a call. Her Peninsula office number is 873-0114. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by LINDA McNATT
Lois Haynes Tapner gave up photography to sell long-term care
insurance.
by CNB