I used my daughter’s university fund to pay for my husband’s funeral

Dear Delyara, My husband died suddenly without enough life insurance. The funeral, burial, travel for relatives, and unpaid bills consumed everything we had. I took $14,000 from our daughter’s college fund. She was fifteen. I told myself I had years to replace it. She is eighteen now and has been accepted to her first-choice university. I have managed to put back less than half. She thinks the account is intact. Yesterday, she said she chose that university partly because “Dad saved for it.” I had to leave the kitchen. He did save for it. So did I. Then I used the money to bury him in the way our family expected. I could have chosen a cheaper coffin, smaller service, no reception. At the time, every cheaper option felt like reducing his life. Now the invoice has become my daughter’s future. I am applying for loans without telling her why. Grief made me spend money as though nothing after the funeral would matter. Three years later, my child is standing in the after.