Jackie Goodman: 100 percent of us are going to die

By Chris Johnson
Director of Communications

Jackie Goodman is more than a realtor with the Atlanta Communities Real Estate Brokerage, a Fuller Center for Housing board member and secretary/treasurer with the Atlanta Fuller Center. She’s also a spokesperson, volunteer, cheerleader and just a plain ol’ ray of sunshine for the Fuller Center.

In his book “More Than Houses,” Millard Fuller described her as the epitome of a fantastic volunteer: “Joyous. Radiant. Positive. Effective. Happy.”

I usually don’t like to play favorites … unless it gets me really cool benefits like cash. 🙂 But the journalist in me must state for the record that Jackie is already one of my favorite people I’ve met during my first month with the Fuller Center. So, know that when I talk about Jackie, I’m hardly being objective. After meeting her, I’ve decided that even Millard Fuller couldn’t adequately describe her.

One of the programs we’re beginning to really promote here is the Planned Giving program, led by Dianne Fuller. Dianne suggested I talk to Jackie and see if she’d be interested in telling me about her plans to leave money to the Fuller Center for Housing after she passes away in the distant, distant future. So I gladly called Jackie today to prepare for a story about our Planned Giving program that we will publish on our website later this month.

Amid her infectious optimism delivered with an unapologetic Southern accent, Jackie hit me with an awfully sobering statistic: “One hundred percent of us are going to die.”

Well, that’s just great! Here I am watching my weight, trying to cut down on caffeine, staying out of the sun, eating a vegetable here and there – and then this usual ray of sunshine goes and gives me a stat like that! That’s what I get for doing a story on Planned Giving, I guess.

“It isn’t depressing,” Jackie said with a smile (really, a smile through the telephone, I swear). “We are going to walk streets of gold, so we don’t need to take our gold with us when we leave.”

Jackie continued to give me her thoughtful comments about the Planned Giving program that I will share in the story later this month. I gotta say, the woman is good. Wow, if Jackie can sell death, she must certainly be able to sell real estate! She’s definitely gotten me ready to sign up, provided I don’t blow all my spare change on caffeinated drinks now that I know there’s a 100 percent chance I’m gonna die anyway.

To learn exactly how the Planned Giving program works, click here!