It has to be a much better year for me than 2011 was. Started okay. Jean had an appointment to start on getting a knee replaced. Then in April she was diagnosed with bi-lateral lung cancer. About the same time we lost my sister Linda. Jean gave me some time and then told me one day “just think. Linda’s up in heaven looking down on all of us saying ‘you people just think you’re having a good time’.”

We spent the summer and fall getting Jean treated at MD Anderson. A couple of rounds of chemo that shrank the tumors enough the radiation was started. She finished her 30 days on Oct 28. As a result of the radiation she got pneumonia. On Nov 14 she had to go to the ER. She spent 7 days sedated and entubated. She was moved to a rehab hospital on day 8. She improved at first because they got the pneumonia. But she got a yeast infection in her lungs. She had less than 50% lung function before the treatment started and she just could not beat the infection. She was fighting right up to the last day. She passed away on Dec 9, 2011. She was buried at Houston National Cemetery on Dec 14.

I called Social Security and reported her death and was told the deposit scheduled for Dec was for Nov so there would be no payback. Saturday, Dec 31 I got a letter from SSA telling me I owed the last 12 months of her SS pension. Someway the idiots got her death date as Dec, 2010 instead of Dec, 2011. Oh well, what’s another trip to the SSA office?