One of my late mother's widowed friends made the comment, "Finally I can have a scrambled egg for dinner. I'm never making another meatloaf again." And this was a woman who had loved her husband and had a pretty good marriage. Her grown kids were upset that when they came home to visit, "Mama isn't cooking anymore!" Yeah, Mama didn't care.
Then, a few years ago, I started a new job, where they issued me an email address with my hyphenated name. I reached out to HR, and they informed me that they use the name listed on an employee's Social Security card to set up the email. If I wanted to get the hyphen removed from my email, I'd have to get a new social security card with the name change.
I am a man who was widowed 11 months ago. I met a woman on a dating site, and we clicked immediately. We have been enjoying each other's company for several months. We have a long-distance relationship. She lives three hours away. Although she indicated on the dating site her status as separated for two years, she still lives in the marital house with her husband.
In 2019, Locke's first memoir, From Scratch, became a Reese's Book Club pick and, soon after, a global hit miniseries on Netflix. We all fell in love right along with her as she recounted her life with Saro, the beautiful Sicilian man she met while studying abroad in Italy in college. But life is full of challenging transitions. As we discovered in the book and miniseries, while Tembi and Saro's love for each other seemed transmutable from day one, it would ultimately have to take another form following his death.
Apart from infidelity, the early death of a spouse is probably among the most devastating events that can impact a marriage, highlighting the emotional and logistical struggles that survivors face.
