Ala. Code § 6-10-39
If a husband, wife or parent, entitled to a homestead or other exemption, absconds or abandons his or her family, leaves the state, is insane, is confined under a charge or conviction for felony or misdemeanor, or is under any other disability or inability, the spouse or, if there is no spouse, the minor child or children, residents of this state with the intention so to continue, shall be entitled to interpose any and all claims of homestead or other exemption which the husband, wife, or parent could have interposed; but the right to such exemptions shall continue only so long as the spouse and minor child or children, or either, shall remain bona fide residents of this state. In the event of the death of the husband, wife or parent pending any contest of a claim of homestead or other exemption, such contest may be revived in the name of the surviving spouse, if there is one, or, if there is none, in the name of the minor child or children, if there are such; but if neither a surviving spouse nor minor child is left surviving, the claim of exemption shall abate and the property ordered sold for the satisfaction of the process. No judgment of condemnation or sale shall be made under this section until the spouse or, if there is no spouse, the minor child, shall have had 20 days' written notice of the levy of the execution, to be served by the sheriff.
Ala. Code § 6-10-39 (1975)