- Thread starter
- #21
It took me a while to respond to the condolences here. I apreciate all of the well wishes.It has been a week and a half and we are still working on things. I never realized how much there is to do after someone passes. We are still trying to get his death certificates so we cans end them to the proper authorities such as his creditors, and the government so mom can get her pension as a military widow. It turns out it could take a year before she can her full pension AFTER she files the paper work which she cannot finish filing until she can get her death certificate.
We spent all morning on the phone with everyone point at everyone over why the certificate has not been issued. It all comes down to the VA (again) that had not sent the paper work needed to Alacare so they could send the rest of his death information to the funeral home so the funeral home can finish the paperwork needed to send it to Montgomery to be officiated who then send it to the health department that issues the death certificates.
WHY are there so many middle men? What is wrong with the system? My mother is having to forgo on essential treatments and medicine because she can't afford it due to this pension mess. Never mind his death is placed solely on the shoulders of the war and things he was exposed to, and then the darn red tape bureaucracy that drug their heels for over two months after discovering (by a civilian doctor none the less) that he had a particularly aggressive and fast moving cancer, before they even started treatments, allowing it to spread to his brain and lymph nodes.
It wasn't enough for the messed up red tape to shorten his life so drastically by bullcrap, but now, my mother has to struggle without income until she can get her pension. What on Earth happened? When did taking care of our veterans and their families become so complicated? He volunteered for two tours in Vietnam, he was highly decorated, he was wounded in battle ending his second tour, he was 82 air born, honored by local police for stopping the mugging of an elderly woman. He was well known by everyone in our small town as a jovial compassionate man who spent his last days rescuing and rehabilitating animals. He deserved so much better and so does my mom. He raised my sister and I as if we were his own blood children.
And now I wonder, what about all those other veterans and civil service people who spend their lives taking care of this nation who have no family to advocate for them? What happens to them when the system fails them? What can be done to fix this? This should not happen to another person. The US spends more money on defense than any other country (I think. Or at least one of the highest amounts), and yet so little of it goes to the service men and women themselves.
I had not meant for this post to turn out this way. I wanted to write thank yous and talk about how things are getting better.
We spent all morning on the phone with everyone point at everyone over why the certificate has not been issued. It all comes down to the VA (again) that had not sent the paper work needed to Alacare so they could send the rest of his death information to the funeral home so the funeral home can finish the paperwork needed to send it to Montgomery to be officiated who then send it to the health department that issues the death certificates.
WHY are there so many middle men? What is wrong with the system? My mother is having to forgo on essential treatments and medicine because she can't afford it due to this pension mess. Never mind his death is placed solely on the shoulders of the war and things he was exposed to, and then the darn red tape bureaucracy that drug their heels for over two months after discovering (by a civilian doctor none the less) that he had a particularly aggressive and fast moving cancer, before they even started treatments, allowing it to spread to his brain and lymph nodes.
It wasn't enough for the messed up red tape to shorten his life so drastically by bullcrap, but now, my mother has to struggle without income until she can get her pension. What on Earth happened? When did taking care of our veterans and their families become so complicated? He volunteered for two tours in Vietnam, he was highly decorated, he was wounded in battle ending his second tour, he was 82 air born, honored by local police for stopping the mugging of an elderly woman. He was well known by everyone in our small town as a jovial compassionate man who spent his last days rescuing and rehabilitating animals. He deserved so much better and so does my mom. He raised my sister and I as if we were his own blood children.
And now I wonder, what about all those other veterans and civil service people who spend their lives taking care of this nation who have no family to advocate for them? What happens to them when the system fails them? What can be done to fix this? This should not happen to another person. The US spends more money on defense than any other country (I think. Or at least one of the highest amounts), and yet so little of it goes to the service men and women themselves.
I had not meant for this post to turn out this way. I wanted to write thank yous and talk about how things are getting better.
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