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My sister is a widow


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Last Wednesday my sister became a widow. My. Bil died in a car wreck. It's been awful for our whole family. We are all close. She homeschools and the children are 7 and 9. They lived on a very very small income. Her husband was disabled and drew a small check. I know the money the kids will get will be very little. We had planned to start school back July 30 but I'm thinking we will need to wait until mid-August. Just to give the kids some time. I am planning on taking over her teaching duties until she feels like she can handle it. Have any of you ever dealt with this? Are there any single widow homeschool mothers on here? I hate to see her hurting and I know she needs time to grieve.

 

Thanks for reading

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I had a friend who became a widow while still homeschooling her youngest child. It too was a sudden loss, her dh fell off a roof while working. It took her quite awhile to get to the place of prior, normal functioning...about a year. She then gathered herself together and faced having to place the youngest in school, and got a full-time job. A local christian school gave her son a full scholarship to help ease the transition. You might think about checking into something like that for her.

 

She had a hard time speaking without crying for the first year. Love on her.

Pray for her...and let her hear your prayers, it's a comfort just to hear what's in people's hearts for her.

 

I'm so sorry for you all.:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:

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Last Wednesday my sister became a widow. My. Bil died in a car wreck. It's been awful for our whole family. We are all close. She homeschools and the children are 7 and 9. They lived on a very very small income. Her husband was disabled and drew a small check. I know the money the kids will get will be very little. We had planned to start school back July 30 but I'm thinking we will need to wait until mid-August. Just to give the kids some time. I am planning on taking over her teaching duties until she feels like she can handle it. Have any of you ever dealt with this? Are there any single widow homeschool mothers on here? I hate to see her hurting and I know she needs time to grieve.

 

Thanks for reading

That's so awful. I'm sorry.

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I am very sorry for your family's loss. Both of her children should qualify for Social Security based on their father's death, so it is possible that if they were already living on his disability income her income level may not be as terribly affected. I'm assuming there was no life insurance policy in place?

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My dh died of cancer when my dds were 6 and 11 (in September.) I was homeschooling both of them at the time. I sent dd 6 to school right away, because I felt that was in her best interest. With dd 11, I just focused on the basics that first year, and enrolled her in school the next fall.

 

I had a family business to run, and I could not (can not) do a good job with both the business and the girls' school.

 

Your sister should get to the SS office, just to see what her daughters can get. There is also a one-time death benefit (which is very small.)

 

:grouphug: to your sister, my heart goes out to her. Make sure she gets continued support over the next 4 years, at least. I found that help tapered off after 3 months, and after a year people expect you to just be "over it". Well, you never really get over it- and I was not anything resembling healed emotionally for 4 years. But everyone grieves differently- I hope you sister heals faster than I did.

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Thank you so much for your kind replies! There was no life insurance, their only car was completely totaled in the wreck. Thankfully many people have given her money and we were able to pay half of the funeral expenses with that. Our church is taking up a special offering for her Sunday so I am hoping it will be enough to finish paying the funeral expenses. Our church and another church found a used van for her and each paid half for it, praise God!!! she will have a vehicle at least. She is so grateful for all the help but is in such a fog right now. It's starting to get hard for her this week. She isn't sleeping and is exhausted. The worst thing she could do would be to put the kids in school. The oldest went for one year and it was awful! They both have learning delays and school would be overwhelming for them. I was a ps teacher (in a previous life) :) so I can handle teaching them if I need to. God is definitely carrying her right now. I don't know how she is putting one foot in front of the other.

 

God Bless,McKinsey

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Last Wednesday my sister became a widow. My. Bil died in a car wreck. It's been awful for our whole family. We are all close. She homeschools and the children are 7 and 9. They lived on a very very small income. Her husband was disabled and drew a small check. I know the money the kids will get will be very little. We had planned to start school back July 30 but I'm thinking we will need to wait until mid-August. Just to give the kids some time. I am planning on taking over her teaching duties until she feels like she can handle it. Have any of you ever dealt with this? Are there any single widow homeschool mothers on here? I hate to see her hurting and I know she needs time to grieve.

 

Thanks for reading

 

:grouphug: oh, how awful. Prayers for your family. :grouphug:

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Oh my...I'm praying for your family.

 

15 years ago, my sister was widowed unexpectedly. It was such an awful time for our family. We had to take it day by day. My nephews were so young...it was such a loss for them.

 

A few years later my sister actually remarried. It was a long hard road to healing, but we all made it.

 

I wish you and your family all the best.:grouphug:

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I'm so sorry for your loss! I know it must be incredibly difficult to lose someone so sudden. I lost my first husband to cancer when my dd was 3 and was a widow for a number of years. I would recommend that she not change her life drastically unless it is absolutely needed. Her kids need her at home right now. She might be surprised at what kind of SS she could get. She would qualify for herself as a non working care giver as well as for her children. They are also very fast at getting the ball rolling (about a month), so it is important that she doesn't wait to go apply. If she could live on this income, it would enable her to keep the rest of their lives on track without making major changes right now. Praying for your family.:grouphug:

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