“A Donald L. Thomas, purportedly born December 24, 1955 (which might be an inaccurate date from a friend who just guessed), passed away in Atlanta in 2009:”
According to this woman her son was born November 1954. Maybe she is suffering from one of many old age illnesses that cause memory loss and does not remember her son died? Could be. Usually though a woman never forgets the month/day her child was born. I know my Granny never did. Plus “Thomas” has to be a common name is any town, and how big is Atlanta? Plus she said she’d not seen him in 10 years, 2009 is only four. Still who knows.
I’m not certain whether DOBs in the SSDI are always accurate or not. Someone who knows more about the SSDI than I do might weigh in here.
Obviously, if we had an exact DOB match that would confirm the record referring to her son. That’s not the case. So maybe he’s still alive.
See also post 23, though.
“Usually though a woman never forgets the month/day her child was born.”
My mother, who recently passed away at age 95, couldn’t remember my birthday but she had dementia.