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Nearly a century after William Collins served as a sharpshooter in the calvary in World War I, his 110-year-old wife finally is receiving military benefits.
With assistance from U.S. Rep. Mark Critz, D-Johnstown, Alda Collins, who turns 110 this week, is getting about $1,000 a month to assist with her stay at a nursing home north of Ebensburg.
It's a far cry from the $36 a month she had been receiving, said her son, James, 73, of Carrolltown.
"I've been trying to get this for some time," James Collins said.
In all, Alda Collins will receive about $25,000 in back benefits, dating to when her son applied for the money four years ago.
Alda Collins is believed to be one of the three oldest Pennsylvanians. She lived by herself in a trailer in Carrolltown until she was 106, and still can use a walker to get to the bathroom, feeds herself, reads the National Enquirer regularly and "can tell you the Pirates are in second place," her son said.
For years, Alda Collins taught in a one-room schoolhouse in Somerset, the kind that had a pot-belly stove in the middle of the room for heat.
Born in 1902, she was 5 years old when she saw her first car.
"She called out to her mother, 'Look, here comes a buggy without a horse,'" her son said.
James Collins said he applied for the back benefits in 2008.
"Every time I got a letter back that said they were processing it," he said. "I thought we weren't going to get anywhere."
Then he saw an ad from Critz saying that the Congressman helps senior citizens. Collins contacted Critz' office, and within months the benefits issue was resolved.
After serving in the Army in World War I, William Collins returned to Somerset, where he was a barber whose shop was in the basement of the former Army Navy Store on the Diamond in the heart of town.
The family lived on West Union Street.
William Collins died in 1976 at age 81.
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