Heli gave you some good suggestions. Your concerns are not foolish. I had a friend who was trying to locate a long lost brother, and paying a detective dearly to locate him. I ran his name on the SSDI site (Social Security Death Index) and within one minute found that he had died three years earlier. I know it's a sad story, but it only makes sense to rule out the possibility of death in the case of seniors.

Hugs, Cee Cee