3. Keep good records
You should grab a pen and a notebook and start writing down the conversations with your spouse’s employer, Social Security clerks and others. Advisers and survivors say this is quite essential in the foggy, early days of grief.
“I kept notes on everything,” says Sue Knight Deutsch, who lost her husband Michael to colon cancer in 2009. He was 55; she was 53. “I had a notebook and every time I made a call I wrote down a date and case number for the call so when I would call again and get a new person I could tell them the number.”
Also, you should keep an expandable file near the notebook. The file should hold the death certificates and other papers, correspondence related to the spouse’s death and current bills due and paid.
