Success in Time for Christmas!

I submitted the A&A application in July for my 88 year old mother who is in assisted living. I had read many of the posts on the forum so I tried to be as detail oriented as possible. I typed a cover letter addressing issues the physician did not include in his somewhat non detailed statement and explaining why the spelling of my mother's maiden name changed from document to document. I essentially tried to anticipate anything that might raise a red flag. My dad had his discharge papers recorded in his home county when he returned from the war and those records now belong to the local genealogical society. I took a chance and obtained a copy from there figuring it had enough different county and VA annotations on it to be seen as "official". It also saved the time it would have taken to get a copy from St Louis. I tabbed all the documents and put the entire package in a report cover. The package was received at Milwaukee on 16 Jul 09. I called a couple of months later to see if progress was being made and was informed the package had been received and they work them in order of receipt. I heard nothing else until 17 Dec when I received a letter from the VA dated 10 Dec. It stated they had received the request for A&A, which included the form naming me as the representative, but had not received a signed statement that I was providing this service at no charge. They provided a sample statement which needed to be signed by both my mother and me. I took this to mean that they were finally processing the request but had no idea how long this might go on. On the 19th I took the letter to my mom for her signature and discovered in her mail a letter from the VA (also dated 10 Dec) approving her application for A&A effective 16 Jul. I was so thrilled that it was approved without having to go back and forth submitting additional information (even if it did take 5 months) that I about did handsprings! The statement they requested went in the mail today...

A huge thank you to all of you angels who posted your experiences and advice. I'm sure the framework you provided made all the difference!!