I met an amazing 69 year old woman, Mrs. T..
She has lived in the same small three bedroom, 1 bath home for almost 50 years.
She raised 8 children there, 5 of her own and three grandchildren.
Her husband left shortly after the 5th child was born, for another woman, never returned and never assisted financially.
He didn't file divorce papers for a few years, so officially they were married for 11 years.
She worked multiple jobs over the years to survive and provide for her family.
Her ex-husband re-married three additional times, all relatively short marriages (each less than ten years) and died from lung cancer about 4 years ago.
Mrs. T. never re-married.
After her husband died, she was informed by Social Security that she would receive her ex-husbands benefits because they were married for over ten years.
Her monthly benefit increased from approx $600/month to almost $1600/month.
"Waiting as long as he did to file divorce papers was the best thing he ever did for me. I'm sure he had no idea. It's the first time in many years that I don't have financial worries. I laugh about it every time I think about it."
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