Woman Finds Out Being Dead Can Be A Real Hassle

[matcom]

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STUART -- Alice DeHan drove her golf cart and waved to neighbors Tuesday in the Stuart mobile home park where she has led an active life for the past two years. The 67-year-old widow even made plans to go to the dog track with a group of friends today.

Not bad for a dead woman.

The Social Security Administration declared her dead on March 20, touching off a chain reaction of inconveniences that included canceled car and health insurance, the shut-off of her cellphone and an overdrawn bank account.

"I've tried to laugh about it," she said. "I treated it like a joke until (Monday) when they canceled my HMO. That was the straw that broke the camel's back, because now I don't have health insurance until I don't know when."

DeHan's first inkling that something was amiss came in mid-April, when she discovered that the Riverland mobile home park maintenance fee automatically withdrawn from her account each month had bounced back from the bank along with a notice stamped "Account Holder Deceased."

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