'I might be dead by the time it's over, if they keep bugging me,' says Theresa Fraser, who was declared dead twice by the Canada Revenue Agency. (CBC)

A woman who lives in Garden of Eden, N.S., got a shock when she learned she had been declared dead not once, but twice, in the past five months by the federal government.

Theresa Fraser, 77, who lives in the rural community about 37 kilometres east of New Glasgow, said she first learned she had been declared dead when she drove into town to do some Christmas shopping at the end of November.

She went to her bank to get some money from her pension cheque, which was automatically deposited by the government. But the teller told her she didn't have enough money in her account.

"I said, 'Didn't my cheques come in?' She said, 'No, your cheques didn't come in,'" Fraser said Wednesday.

'I'm bright-eyed and bushy-tailed … So it was really a shock to find out I had died." —Theresa Fraser, of Garden of Eden, N.S.

The teller helped Fraser call the Canada Revenue Agency in Ottawa to find out why her cheques were late.

That's when Fraser found out the federal government thought she'd died.

"I went on the phone and I said, 'Well, I'm bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and I drove in, I drove 30 miles in.' So it was really a shock to find out I had died," Fraser said, laughing.

During the conversation, the probable reason for the mix-up was discovered: another Pictou County woman with the same name and middle initial had recently died.

"She said they just take a ruler and go down the list, and I said, 'What about my social security number?' This other lady's number and mine wouldn't be the same, our addresses wouldn't be the same, phone numbers or anything," Fraser said.

"It kind of upset me that day because it could happen to anybody."

Dead again

She was told the problem was corrected, and her cheques started to arrive again in January.

But last week, another letter arrived in the mail from Canada Revenue.

"It came to the estate of the late Theresa Fraser — my address and social security number was on it and everything," Fraser said. "So I died again."

This time Canada Revenue wanted her to return the GST cheque they had sent to her in January for $94.50.

Fraser got back on the phone to prove yet again that she is still alive. But she fears this may not be over yet.

"I might be dead by the time it's over, if they keep bugging me," Fraser said.

In the meantime, she will continue to volunteer in her community and knit for her grandchildren.