[ Post a Response | Angel On My Shoulder ]
Posted by Sheryl on 10/12/2007, 9:20 pm In April, I knew that he was too ill to ever go back to work and I knew his time on this earth was going to be limited. My heavy-duty grieving started in spring. At the same time I was feeling desperate to find a different job because his health insurance was going to be running out. He was approaching his life-time cap (which meant no COBRA for him). We earned too much with his disability for state Badger care insurance. The HIRSP plan was not an option either, due to having a lapse of time without anything. America's health insurance problems sicken me. This was a horrible time for me to feel that I had to take on a new job, as I knew that I would not be eligible for family leave. Sometimes I wish we lived in a foreign country, i.e. Sweden or somewhere that they support families. The same week that I took the new job, my husband passed away. Everything was happening to me. Why couldn't I have only had to deal with my husband's loss, without having to worry also about working and health insurance. Life can be so crazy. Well, I have been with the new job two and one-half months and I really don't like it. I really feel like I would just like to quit and take some time for me to heal. I am also taking part-time college credits and have only 37 credits to complete my degree. We still don't qualify for Badgercare and I could pay the very expensive COBRA rates for a while. This really could mean that I end up taking a lot of life insurance money that I could use later in life. However, I feel that I have been so stressed that if I don't take some time for me, I am worried that I will become physically ill, cancer or something. I believe that I have already developed an autoimmune disorder associated from stress from my husband'illness. My doctor appointments are finally getting scheduled. Any advise out there for a stressed and lonely widow? Sheryl
My husband, John, died on August 3, 2007, at age 45 years. We have three beautiful children, 22, 17, and 15 years old. John had cancer over 6 years and was never in remission the whole time. He was able to work up until the end of March this spring and then received short-term disability from his employer and he received ONE check from SSDI.
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