Army widow wins relief

SANDUSKY — An Ohio woman lost her husband in 2020 after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer. This June, the mother of four adult children and military widow received her first pension payment, took a deep breath and said she was able to properly mourn the loss of her husband for the first time. Jennifer Lowy's three-year feud with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for the pension of her late husband, Sgt. Daniel Lowy, came after supporting him through both his military career and an even longer span of hospital visits, chronic pain and seizures. When Lowy, a manager at a local retail store, received a foreclosure warning from her mortgage company in January, a weighty timeline was created, threatening homelessness in addition to the fight she had been entangled in since 2020. Dan and Jennifer Lowy pose for a photo in 2015. With the unwavering support of two local veterans at the Erie County Veteran Services Office, Chuck Solander and Mike Lang, Lowy was granted a Dependency and Indemnity Compensation pension, saving her home from foreclosure. Dependency and Indemnity Compensation is a monthly benefit paid to eligible survivors of veterans who died as a result of their military service. "I would have been homeless and lost, if not for Chuck and Mike," Lowy said. "We don't let them say 'no'" Solander and Lang, who are both veterans themselves, said they embraced Lowy's case because of the severity and legitimate argument for gaining coverage. Despite this, the trio was unsuccessful in gaining approval until after the passing of the PACT Act — a bill that passed in 2022 that expands health care benefits to more veterans and their families. The VA has added 20 burn pit and toxic exposure presumptive conditions as a result of the PACT Act. "There's so many hoops to jump through. And people still kept saying no," Solander, Erie County's executive director of veterans services, said. "That's where what we do comes into play, we don't let them say 'no'. We know what the laws are. We know what the facts are." Like Jennifer's husband, both Lang and Solander served in the Army. "There could be widows whose husbands have been dead for ten years," said Lang, who served a tour in the United Arab Emirates. "But because the PACT Act passed — if they were in Kuwait, if they were in Desert Shield, Desert Storm, they died of cancer — now that widow could be eligible for (compensation) and they don't even know it." Lowy anticipated approval of compensation for 37 months after a doctor told her that her husband's prognosis was a result of his service, she said. Lowy held onto letters from her husband's deployment to the Gulf War in which he wrote about his exposure to toxic burn pits. "Do you think 30-some years ago, he's sitting there going, 'someday I'm going to die of cancer, so I should write stuff like this down so my wife can make a claim someday?'" Lowy said. The Lowy family poses for a photo in November 2019, four months before Dan Lowy's death. Back row, left to right: Sons Ian, Nicolas and Joe. Front row, left to right, daughter Abbey, father/husband Dan, mother/wife Jennifer. The VA told Jennifer that her husband had never even been in the Gulf War upon her first denial for benefits, she said. Lowy was denied twice more. "When they kept saying no, we knew that we needed to somehow get this through," Solander said. "We finally got them to do it." The ceaseless battle with Veterans Affairs and financial troubles didn't allow Lowy or her children — Nicolas, Ian, Abbey and Joe — to properly honor Dan. Lowy was unable to make the payments for her husband's funeral due to unemployment caused by COVID-19 and medical expenses she had taken on. The VA covered treatment costs but the family was burdened with paying for prescriptions and other health related supplies. They began taking on debt and mowing through savings. Because of this, Jennifer's two oldest sons, Nicolas and Ian, felt inclined to pay for the funeral arrangements. "Do you know what it's like to have your two oldest sons pay for your husband's funeral?" Lowy said. "It was hard for me to say, 'I can't do this. I need help.'" Receiving the diagnosis The Lowys had built a dream life for themselves and were financially comfortable. This was no longer the case for Jennifer following the loss of her husband. "We started young and we were going to be able to retire young while still in our 50s," Lowy said. "I don't have that now." The couple planned to move to Florida following the graduation of their youngest son Joe, 20. The Lowys wanted to retire and ride their motorcycle together in the southern warmth. Dan and Jennifer met as young adults while the pair spent the summer working at Cedar Point. Dan was a Sanduskian through and through. Jennifer grew up in Pittsburgh. They married 33 years ago in June 1990 and had their first child soon after. Sgt. Dan Lowy, right, poses with fellow servicemen Rob Hamm pose in this 1987 photo taken while stationed in Wiesbaden, Germany. A 1985 Sandusky High School graduate, Dan was an avid runner and weightlifter who maintained peak physical fitness. But soon after he rejoined the Army in 1990 — following a brief intermission and time with the National Guard — he fell ill. A series of back injuries, gastronomic illnesses and chronic pain followed and eventually shrouded the cancer symptoms that existed within him decades later. "With all the scar tissue and the issues with his back, that wasn't something that was new," Lowy said. "The pain in his back and the discomfort he felt wasn't anything new to him." The cancer diagnosis came in March 2018 when Dan was 50. When a $25,000 bill came for Dan's first two chemo treatments, he was worried of the financial circumstances his family would be forced into, Lowy said. He had to be convinced to continue receiving care. "I didn't care if we had to pay from then through the next 100 years," Lowy said. "We were doing treatment. We were not stopping on this." Dan died on March 29, 2020. He was 52 years old. The once strapping, 180-pound soldier had sunk to a mere 117 pounds in his final days. Benefits approved at last In May of 2020 — after an eight-week delay in receiving her husband's death certificate — Jennifer filed her first claim with Lang at the Erie County Veteran Services office. Their benefits were finally approved in late April, three years after Dan's death. "You can't just let a family go homeless and that's what was about to happen," Lang said. After dozens of visits to see Solander and Lang, three denials and years of anxiety, Lowy said the two bearded veterans were brought to tears when she was approved. "We knew on behalf of her, that this is something we wanted to get done," Solander said. "It came to fruition. These people deserve this. These families deserve these things." Helping others The pair of Army vets heading the Erie County Veterans Services office are assisting others in the area in receiving the benefits they deserve. Their business has skyrocketed by 300-400 percent since the passing of the PACT Act last August, according to Solander. The veteran duo doesn't want other veterans or their families to suffer the way Lowy and her children did. Solander and Lang want to get the word out of the work they do and help they can lend. "This is humongous for veterans and widows to know about this benefit and know where to get this help," Lang said. "Our services are all free. We don't charge, it's all free." The Erie County Veterans Services Office is located at 2900 Columbus Ave in Sandusky. The office can be reached at 419-627-7763 and people can find more information at the agency's website: eriecounty.oh.gov/Veteransresources.aspx.