Married one year or one day or one hour, living in separate states or separate countries or separate continents, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that they were legally married. Assuming your mother did not have a will--if she did, then her property goes to whomever the will says it does--her property goes or passes by "intestate succession": the rules for who gets what when there is no will. In your state (Texas) when there is no will, if there is a spouse (which there is) and children not from that spouse (you and your sister), the spouse gets 1/3 of your mother's separate property (anything she owned pre-marriage) and the right to use your mother's real estate for life (so he can live there as long as he wants; and he has a 1/3 interest in the home, as well as 1/3 of anything else she had pre-marriage). You and your sister split the other 2/3 of her separate property and her 1/2 interest in community property (what she acquired while married).