When my poor husband passed away in 2012, the VA pretty much gave me the boot.  Since his illness covered a span of 10 years, the costs ended up wiping out everything — savings, retirement, everything.  In retrospect I find it interesting to look back and see how society’s vultures can so easily victimize someone in this position.  But, I digress….

Today the V.A. is facing some rather difficult issues.  The one I’m curious about is the “death list” they seemed to have maintained.  In poor Roger’s case, they insisted to the day he died, that he had a 15% chance of being able to return to the workforce.  They failed to advise that he was sick on the day of his discharge, failed to advise either of us in subsequent years, and every time he got sick or injured (both legs snapped in half as a side-affect of cancer treatment), they would immediately have hospice assigned.  If we had not agreed to hospice, they threatened complete termination of services, so hospice it was.

Roger and his buddy, “Little Man,” about 1 year before Roger passed away.

Re-evaluation requests could take as much as 18 months before being scheduled for medical review and usually took 6-10 months after the medical review before a decision was made.  Looking back, it was such a nightmare.

Today there’s a new nightmare, but this one has a little light at the end of the tunnel.  My appointment to meet with the DAV (Disabled American Veterans) is in a week.  I’ll be carting all of Roger’s documents (three file boxes full) to prove that perhaps the VA screwed up in this case as well.  Oh boy, am I ever crossing my fingers!

If they find in my favor, I might even be able to collect a pension on widow’s benefits — which is only about $500-600 per month, but to me that sounds like winning the jackpot!  I’ve been surviving on $400-500 a month since my husband’s death.  Oh Lordie — hear my prayer!