Roughly a Century Later, 110-Year-Old Widow Gets Benefits Boost for Husband’s Service in WWI
- Posted on August 14, 2012 at 4:13pm by
Erica Ritz
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William Collins (Courtesy Photo via CNHI News Service)
One of Pennsylvania’s oldest living residents, 110-year-old Alda Collins, recently became one of the only Americans to receive a benefits boost due to her husband’s service in World War I. According to reports, after a long battle with government bureaucracy, the woman’s checks increased from $36 to roughly $1,000 a month.
The Daily American has background:
Nearly a century after William Collins served as a sharpshooter in the calvary in World War I, his 110-year-old wife finally is receiving military benefits.
With assistance from U.S. Rep. Mark Critz, D-Johnstown, Alda Collins … is getting about $1,000 a month to assist with her stay at a nursing home north of Ebensburg.
It’s a far cry from the $36 a month she had been receiving, said her son, James, 73, of Carrolltown.
[...]
In all, Alda Collins will receive about $25,000 in back benefits, dating to when her son applied for the money four years ago. [Emphasis added]
“We’ve been trying to get it straightened out for a long time,” Collins’ son James noted, adding: “Every time I got a letter back, they’d tell me they were processing it.”
Congressman Critz celebrated the victory, saying: “It is really just an awesome outcome…You can’t help but feel like Mr. Collins found a way to say ‘happy birthday’ to his wife and just had my office deliver the card.”
But while the elderly woman is grateful for Critz’s help in the matter, Collins describes herself as a die-hard Republican and doesn’t appear to be changing her political stance.
CNHI News related that Collins has been casting ballots for the GOP since she was first eligible to vote after the 19th amendment was ratified in 1920.
The Daily American has more on the woman’s life:
[Collins] lived by herself in a trailer in Carrolltown until she was 106, and still can use a walker to get to the bathroom, feeds herself, reads the National Enquirer regularly and “can tell you the Pirates are in second place,” her son said.
For years, Alda Collins taught in a one-room schoolhouse in Somerset, the kind that had a pot-belly stove in the middle of the room for heat.
Born in 1902, she was 5 years old when she saw her first car.
“Look, here comes a buggy without a horse,” she reportedly called to her mother.
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1956
Posted on August 15, 2012 at 7:02amI get so upset that our government doesn’t appreciate our elderly and vets as much as they should. I love her feisty soul.
Report Post »delainie
Posted on August 15, 2012 at 4:37amGeez, I hope they don’t wait that long for mine… I’ve been waiting 2 years for then to get the corrections to my VA disability done… I’m still not getting paid for my husband… right now, they owe me $8,200, and adding $200 per month.. it’s ridiculous it takes 2+ years and counting for the VA to correct their own mistakes. F’n job security is the only thing I can think of.
Report Post »BryanB
Posted on August 15, 2012 at 2:12amMy Great Grandfather Served in the U.S. Army from 1915 to 1919, and fought in WWI. He never asked for or received any VA Benefits ever. And could not re-enlist in the Army for WWII, because he was wounded and lost a good part of his Hearing……
My Grandfather Served from 1942 to 1946 in the U.S. Army and was Wounded three time, including once when his canopy on his parachute didn’t deploy properly, (Retaking Philippine Island of Corregidor) and the canopy didn’t open untill his feet hit the ground, the landing was so hard it temporally paralyzed him. That jump gave him severe back problems for the rest of his life. His other wounds gave him other complications in his life. Again he took none of his VA Benefits.
My Great Grandfather and Grandfather didn‘t take there VA Benefits or VA Disability because they didn’t need it, but because they believed someone else needed it more then they did………..
Report Post »OniKaze
Posted on August 15, 2012 at 3:13pmIt sounds like you come from a good line of “heros”….
Be Proud.. People like your family are what makes America great…
Much honor and respect to your family, sir… They earned and deserve it…
Report Post »Restoreamericanow
Posted on August 14, 2012 at 10:11pmIf she’d been on Obamacare, they would have let that old, GOP lady die a long time ago.
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on August 14, 2012 at 9:31pmAnd what’s sick is that you can wake up at noon smoke a crack rock , drink a forty malt liquor, in your section 8 housing , while waiting for your welfare check, in your 300 $ air Jordan’s…..and make 3000 per month BEFORE TAXES……….IF YOU. VOTE DEMOCRAT THAT IS………….
Report Post »KenInIL
Posted on August 14, 2012 at 10:54pmThat D congressman better not get any more that $36/month pension before he turns 106. That is really a piss poor job for a constituent !!
Report Post »Tigress1
Posted on August 14, 2012 at 9:28pmThis is sad. On one hand we have people who receive every gov. handout under the sun who are perfectly capable of doing work, and then on the other hand we have people like this woman, who have to jump through hoops just to get what she and her husband EARNED. Her PRIDE probably kept her from seeking the benefits earlier. If more people had her kind of pride and dignity, our nation wouldn’t be in as bad of shape economically as it is today.
Report Post »amused
Posted on August 14, 2012 at 8:42pmWW1
1914-1918, US 1917-1918
not 1945
Her husband served almost 100 years ago.
$36 a month….embarrising, 1000 a month sad.
“The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation.”
- George Washington
36 buck for his wife, now a wopping 1k for a 112 year old… a very thankful nation…..sad, sad, sad….
Report Post »Itsnakemo
Posted on August 14, 2012 at 8:40pmCavalry not calvary.
Report Post »edmundburk
Posted on August 14, 2012 at 6:08pmis it me, or isn’t the problem with this country is that your average americian reads trash and avidly
Report Post »follows the local sports teams? no offence to the old women……..
watashbuddyfriend
Posted on August 14, 2012 at 6:39pmEdmund, you are right on target with what you say! A good example is where you see the most post on TheBlaze. Shame is it not?
Report Post »ExTex
Posted on August 14, 2012 at 5:51pm“…the woman’s check will increase from $36 to $1000 a month.”
Is it just me? How the hell do you justify paying a 110 yr old widowed woman $36 a month? And only $25,000 in back pay? Really? Are there no adjustments made for inflation? $36 a month might’ve been fine in 1945, but it‘s a little low by today’s standards.
Report Post »RJJinGadsden
Posted on August 14, 2012 at 6:02pmThat is the efficiency of the government when they run such programs. After having dealt with the VA Hospital system, I really look forward to 0bamacare screwing us all. Sarcasm off.
Report Post »HollisBrown
Posted on August 14, 2012 at 5:36pmif she was black they would start printing money!
Report Post »grannyjojo
Posted on August 14, 2012 at 5:26pmShe deserves a whole lot more! God bless and keep this woman. She’s an honest to goodness American made woman!!!!
Report Post »RJJinGadsden
Posted on August 14, 2012 at 5:19pmI‘m impressed that they just didn’t give her one of those special pills.
Report Post »flatbroke
Posted on August 14, 2012 at 5:17pmThey should cut her a check for a lump sum, but then they would just tax it, and she would only get may 12 grand, then they would kick her out of the NH she is in for having too much money! AHs
Report Post »dont_drive_slow_in_the_left_lane_obliviot
Posted on August 14, 2012 at 5:02pmthis woman is a national treasure, she deserves a lot more than that.
Report Post »Freddie Bear
Posted on August 14, 2012 at 4:59pmInteresting, she must have married at 16 years old.
Report Post »Freddie Bear
Posted on August 14, 2012 at 4:57pmA die hard Republican because they won the womans right to vote against democrat opposition. That’s loyalty.
Report Post »Conservative2
Posted on August 14, 2012 at 4:39pmThere should of been allot more back pay than that, it should of went all the way back to her husbands death of which I‘m sure wasn’t 4 years ago! Shame on them!
Report Post »Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on August 14, 2012 at 4:37pmWe have a nice old black woman, in our town, who is 102 now. She lives at home, still drives, goes grocery shopping, keeps her own check book and is active in her church. Mrs. Viola is a classy old woman.
Report Post »Logistician
Posted on August 14, 2012 at 6:26pmI like the saying about judging a society by how it treats the very old and the very young, the weakest among us. I feel pride when my community; my society, supports and enables the elderly, the weak, the young, to live in safety. The left would object at the notion that judgements can ever be made at all, because everything is relative. The left is wrong. Say hi to your friend for me, give her a smile.
Report Post »chips1
Posted on August 14, 2012 at 4:33pmTry and get your Obamacare to accept your medical care in 4 years. It ain’t gonna happen!
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on August 14, 2012 at 4:31pmThey didn’t want to give her what her husband EARNED for her a hundred years ago…but they were probably knocking themselves out to get her on food stamps.
Report Post »LeadNotFollow
Posted on August 14, 2012 at 4:26pm…
God bless Mrs. Collins. This story brought a tear to my eye. So glad she got her money.
Just wish she could have stayed in her own home, and not ended up in a nursing home.
Our Government is a joke. This woman should not have had to wait so many years for her benefits.
Report Post »I guess the Government was hoping at her age, she would die, and they wouldn’t have to bother with her.