Can I send Sallie Mae and the State Dept. of Edu after my mother's estate?

I graduated about a year ago with about 37K in student debt with. My current loan status is $6,147.26 in a Sallie Mae Smart Option Student Loan with an interest rate of 3.75% and $31,415.92 in a DL Consolidated Unsubsidized Loan through the Department of Education (Stafford?).

As far as I know, both loans are in my name with my mother as the cosigner. (My father opposed me going to college and refused to cosign on any educational loans.) On New Year’s day of his year, my mother died collapsed and died suddenly after a brief and difficult battle with lung cancer. She intended to leave all three of her children something when she passed but died days before she was supposed to go to a lawyer and finalize it. She had a difficult relationship with my father but they were still married and living together.

Now my father, despite his original promise to give me something has decided to viciously decide to not give me a cent of the money she intended for me out of pure spite. I had to leave the US with my boyfriend to avoid conflict with him since he has a long history of nasty and abusive behavior. I was very close to my Mom and I’ve been taking her death hard. Sadly, I have really been a total emotional mess over her death and my father’s continuing nastiness and my loans are now 120 days past due and I am flat broke at the moment—struggling to make ends meet.

I called Sallie Mae today and the woman was pretty unhelpful except for telling me that the Sallie Mae Smart Option Loan could potentially be collected from my Mom’s estate once they receive her death certificate. I then called the Dept. of Education and she wasn’t able to pull up my account yet and said it may take a couple of more weeks. But she did advice me that the 31K loan may be able to be forgiven since the cosigner died.

Is that true? Does anyone have experience with this? Could I send them after my Mom’s estate to pay the 37K in total or at least get what they can and pay the difference? What should I do?