Mark was 81 and had finally relented to his adult daughter’s persistent encouragement to move in with her and her family. He had been widowed and living alone for many years and most of his friends had either passed away or moved away. He was feeling isolated and alone and was beginning to have difficulty with his own basic care.
His daughter offered to support him as best she could.
He knew he could no longer take care of his house, wasn’t safe driving any longer, and was having a number of challenges with his balance, mobility, strength, and even his health. It seemed to make sense, even though he was reluctant to leave behind a house he shared with his wife for more than 40 years.
When he settled in with his new living situation, he started connecting with the local VFW. As a wartime veteran, he found great camaraderie with other veterans who had come through the challenges and mental anguish that seemed to come along with actual combat.
Making new friends felt great. He hadn’t been involved in the local VFW near his old house for many years. It seemed that there were simply too many new faces and he got tired of walking in and not seeing the friends he had had for many decades.
Now, though, he was making new friends, getting connected with other veterans who had incredible experiences of their own to share, and started to realize that some of them knew more about various pensions than he ever did.
One of the pensions he heard about was called the Aid and Attendance Benefit.
He had never heard about this pension before and was surprised to learn it provided financial support to qualifying veterans who needed homecare. He felt he would certainly qualify in that he could prove homecare service was needed. Even living with his daughter and her family, he still struggle with many things.
Her and her husband worked full-time jobs, their children were either in high school, playing sports, or in college, and there wasn’t really anyone home during the day.
He discovered that he could very well qualify for this pension and have homecare services supporting him when he needed it. That also helped him realize he didn’t need to move out of his house if he applied and was approved for the Aid in Attendance Benefit.