Randy Murallo Made Legacy Gift of a Life Insurance Policy to YNHH Because “Paying It Forward Is the Right Thing to Do”

“Your will is your last opportunity to make something happen. If you leave something to a great hospital like YNHH, you will have a significant impact on someone who needs your help.”  —Randy Murallo

The difference you make

Randy Murallo has seen a lot of generosity in his lifetime, and he learned by example. It started with his father, Exequiel V. Murallo Sr., a single dad who raised eleven kids by working two jobs—one serving in the U.S. Coast Guard, and a second as a chef in a restaurant—coming home between shifts to prepare dinner for the family. He was known by family and friends as a giving man who loved to help people. Exequiel had a philosophy that he passed down to his children: “If you take care of others, God will take care of you.”

Like his father, Randy is also leading by example for his own children by making a legacy gift of his life insurance policy to support Yale New Haven Hospital.

The kindness of strangers

In high school Randy assumed college was out of the question—there just wasn’t enough money to pay for it. But his coaches and counselors stepped in to help him get scholarships.

“I saw first-hand how people who didn’t even know me—people who believed in giving back through scholarships—made it possible for me to have a better life,” says Randy.

The examples set by his dad and those responsible for his scholarships would probably have been enough to inspire Randy to find a way to give back. But what ultimately spurred him to act was what happened in December 1983.

That was when Randy’s son Ryan was born with a life-threatening, collapsed lung at a local hospital that wasn’t equipped with a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Randy raced behind the ambulance that rushed little Ryan to the NICU at Yale New Haven Hospital, his heart pounding. When he arrived, he was terrified to find his son in an incubator with a tube in his chest, surrounded by medical staff.

“The doctors and nurses seemed like angels,” remembers Randy. “They made me feel that everything would be okay.”

And it was. A week later, a healthy Ryan went home for the first time. “My son is alive today because someone I didn’t know, who didn’t know me, had the foresight to create a NICU at YNHH,” says Randy. “I wanted to give back but I didn’t know how”

Randy was incredibly grateful for the care Ryan received, and he wanted to show it with a donation to the hospital. But money is tight when you’re just starting out. Randy and his wife had two more sons in the next few years. He worked long hours in retail to support them.

“If I had the money at the time, I would have made the donation there and then,” he says.

One day, when Randy met with his lawyer to make out his will, he discovered that there was another way to repay the kindness he experienced at YNHH. He named YNHH as a beneficiary to his life insurance policy. It was the perfect solution—without spending a penny today, he left a legacy for the hospital in the future.

“I learned from my father to lead by example,” says Randy. “And it was my turn to show my kids that paying it forward is the right thing to do.”