Q: I am 69 years old. My Social Security is $1,070 per month. My husband is 77 and he gets $1,990. We just learned that he has only about 6 months to live. So I am thinking about widow's benefits. The problem is he is my second husband (my first husband died in 1999) and we have been married for only seven years. That means we will not be married the required 10 years when he dies. Is there any way around this 10-year rule so that I will be able to get his widow's benefits?

A: I'm sorry to hear about your husband's prognosis. But I do have good news for you. The 10-year duration of marriage rule you are worried about applies only to divorced women. Because you are currently married to your husband, that rule doesn't apply. (There is a 1-year rule, but you are well past that, so you are OK.)

That means when your husband dies, you will start getting what he was getting. Or to be more precise, you will continue to get your $1,070 benefit, and then you will get an extra $920 in widow's benefits to take you up to his current rate of $1,990.

And there is one other possible twist to your Social Security scenario. When your current husband dies, you also will be potentially due widow's benefits from your first husband's Social Security account. You won't get two widow's benefits. But you will get the one that pays the higher rate. So make sure you tell the Social Security people about this prior marriage at the time you are signing up for widow's benefits.

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If you have a Social Security question, Tom Margenau has the answer. Contact him at thomas.margenau@comcast.net. To find out more about Tom Margenau and to read past columns and see features from other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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