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As a mother of three minors, I received generous monthly checks for each of them from social security, and another for myself; I was unexpectedly swimming in mostly tax free money. Along with all his assets becoming mine (mostly real estate by that time) and life insurance, I suddenly had plenty of money, after a few years of not being able to make ends meet. Thank goodness. We needed that relief. Watching him die was awful, and extremely stressful. Was I lucky? No, but at least I had enough money.