Some of you older followers know the long series of battles we fought to get Leigh “Silver Queen” Burch her long-overdue Permanent and Total rating. No one fought harder, drove further and read the law deeper into the night than her husband of 30 years. Paul probably emailed me over a thousand times on just her claims. They bought the Silver Queen corn Cupcake and I planted for the last three years. They encouraged me to fight for my greenhouse. In the course of the claim, Leigh had to have a liver transplant. 

They finally prevailed February 2015 after years of appeals to the BVA and even an Extraordinary Writ to the CAVC in pursuit of her c-file. I learned  that Paul had been diagnosed in September with cancer and had prayed the chemo had been successful. Apparently it wasn’t. Paul passed on March 8th, 2016 and was buried with full military honors at Sarasota Veterans Cemetery March 10.

One of the greatest advocates for HCVets  now joins a treasured list on my site. With the advent of Sovaldi/Harvoni, the list is not growing quite as fast as it was. We’ll sure miss Paul as he and Leigh had made plans to come out west when they won. I had looked forward to shaking the hand of a True Marine- one who refused to leave his wife of thirty years behind.

Sarasota, Florida Veterans Cemetery