Clive's Elder Care Navigation and VA Benefits Testimonial (Transcript)
I retired here with my wife. We get here. And little by little, I began noticing her memory disappearing. Took her to a clinic over in St. Petersburg, and they said, "There is early memory loss, about 15%." So that made me become a little worried. But, as each day, each month, each year went by, it became a little bit worse.
I thought, "My wife has got to go into some kind of care. I don't know where you go. I don't know how it works. I don't know what it costs." I came to Rep DeLoach when I realized that a phone call to the elder care organization located here in this area, in this county, was giving me information that wasn't consistent with what I had researched, and I felt that I needed help from someone that would know the situation.
We sat. We talked it over. He gave me background information on what he had to offer with his, first of all, person with the connections to all the assisted living. And he had the assisted living facility set up, the pricing, and everything else. I took her there. I got her set up there. But, within two months, she got up from a dining room table, pitched forward into the corner of another table, and was now being rushed to the hospital with broken ribs.
They told us she could not, could not go back to assisted living. It had to be a nursing home. There, again, was I having to look for one? No, Rep had it already lined up. And at 10:30 at night, three days before Christmas, I was able to drive in the back way to a locked-up facility, and then out came two aides to help pick her up out of my car and carry her in and put her into there, get her cleaned up, and so on. And that was the start of the nursing home.
Rep had within a day or two after, he had a gentleman come into my home - right here in Seminole Gardens, where I'd moved, come in here and sit down with me and work all the paperwork out so that she would be covered by insurance, because the nursing home, frankly, would've had me bankrupt in a year and a half. Now she's in the nursing home. I meet with Rep to go over some other things, and he said to me, "Clive," he said, "I want you to take this paper I have and go to the VA immediately."
I said, "Well, what's this all about, Rep?" He said, "It's called Aid and Attendance."
I'd never heard of it. So I take the paperwork in. Then, about the end of 18 months, I happen to go to the bank, and there was $15,200 in my checking account from the VA. About a week later, the VA sends me a letter of how much I'm going to be getting each month, tax-free.
I'd have never had that money if I hadn't gone to an attorney who knew what he was doing and how to do it. And that assistance was fantastic. Rep was there, and Rep took care of everything for me, but he also gave me something that probably was much more valuable than anything else. Rep recognized what I did, too - that maybe sometimes we can help other people.
As far as I'm concerned, Rep DeLoach has given me a whole new life.