110-year-old Pa. widow gets WWI benefits boost

Aug 14, 2012 |

EBENSBURG

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A 110-year-old Pennsylvania widow is getting a benefits boost because of her husband's World War I service.

Family members say Alda Collins is now getting about $1,000 a month to assist with her stay at a nursing home near Ebensburg. She had been getting $36 a month.

Her son tells the Daily American of Somerset that Collins lived by herself in a trailer until she was 106. She can use a walker, feeds herself and knows the Pirates are in second place.

For years, she taught in a one-room schoolhouse.

Her husband, William, served in the Army in World War I. He died in 1976 at age 81.

The family had been asking the Veterans Administration for the benefits adjustment since 2008 and recently got help from U.S. Rep. Mark Critz.

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