My brain hurts

Boy, do I appreciate everything Marshall did over the years with regard to benefits. I hate doing this.

At any rate, I spent almost 3 hours with the Veterans Service Officer today.  He made sure to stress that he is not an employee of the VA, he is hired by the State to help veterans.  We went over all the benefits I should be entitled to and then we filled out a long application.  I had to bring in Marshall's military discharge form, our marriage certificate, his death certificate and his VA disability award letteer.

The first order of business is to try to get the VA to give me back the money they took out of my checking account as soon as they learned Marshall had died.  The Service Officer, Tim, told me that the disability checks are deposited a month behind.  So in other words, the check for June is deposited in July.  So when they took back the July deposit they were taking back money that was for a month when Marshall was alive so they shouldn't have done that.  We will try to get that money back.

Then he gave me a form outlining the various types of headstone I can pick out, so I need to contact the cemetery and see if they have any restrictions and then I will pick one out and decide what I want engraved on it.

The other things I should be entitled to are:

     *  Burial expenses up to $2,000.  This will include all expenses that I incur taking Marshall's ashes to West Virginia (airfare, gas, mileage, hotel, etc.) so I need to keep all receipts.

     *  A portion of Marshall's monthly disability payment, maybe as much as $1400.

     *  A retroactive payment for Aid & Assistance.  I had applied for this two years ago and never got a response to my application so since I was definitely entitled to it -- and if I can prove I applied for it -- we will ask for all back payments.

Then this afternoon I spent 5 hours on the phone with insurance companies and then researching trying to figure out which supplemental insurance to get, as well as what prescription drug plan to get. I need to make decisions pretty soon.  (My thanks to those of you who provided me with information and suggestions -- I researched them all.)

Tomorrow I have errands to run (Gina will be here with the boys) so I will get back to insurance issues on Thursday.

I'm going to get back into making and selling my jewelry.  I called the store where I was selling before and the owner is going to make space for me again.  I should be up and running by October 1st.  Little by little, I'm doing normal thngs again.