At Wife’s Funeral Grieving Man Sees Crying Girl Who Is a Carbon Copy of His Late Beloved — Story of the Day

A grieving widower is stunned when he sees his late wife's carbon copy at the funeral with his father-in-law. When he discovers her identity, he makes a surprising request.

Will stood by Melanie's grave, grasping the roses so tightly the thorns cut into his palms. "How could you?" he asked angrily. "How could you leave me?" William felt as though his grief and his anger were suffocating him.

His beautiful wife of twelve years and their unborn baby were dead, and soon a dark rain of earth would fall on their coffin. "Was this how true love ended?" Will wondered, "With pain and loneliness?"

Just days ago, William and Melanie had been living through the happiest moments of their lives. After struggling to conceive for almost a decade, Melanie was nearly eight months pregnant and glowing.

Then William woke in the night to find Melanie gasping for breath, bleeding. They had rushed to the hospital, and the doctors had broken the news: pre-eclampsia.

Maybe, they said, if they were very, very lucky, mother and child would survive. But even though the doctors did their best, Melanie died, and their unborn daughter died with her.

Family is a state of the heart, not a question of biology.

"I hate You, God!" Will hissed. "I hate You. Melanie trusted in You, her last words were a prayer to You, and this is how you repay her?"

Will dashed the tears of rage from his eyes and threw the rose, stained with his blood, into the grave that was swallowing his dreams. He didn't know what he was going to do. What would he live for now?

He felt a gentle touch on his shoulder and found himself face to face with Melanie's father. Will scarcely knew his father-in-law. He lived in another state, and Melanie hadn't been close to her parents.

Now the man stood there, with tears in his eyes. "I'm sorry, William," he said. "This loss...There are no words..."

William looked away from Melanie's father and the compassion in his eyes and saw a girl standing behind him, weeping bitterly as she clutched a bouquet of pale lilies.

He gasped at the sight of her. She looked just like Melanie, as she must have been at thirteen. "I didn't know you had another daughter," Will said, staring at the child.

"She's not my daughter," his father-in-law said gently. "She is my granddaughter, Melanie's child."

Will gasped. Melanie had a child? He couldn't believe it! "Who, how..." he asked. "When?"

"She had Ginny two years before she met you," Melanie's dad said. "She was finishing college, and she wanted to give the baby up for adoption. My wife and I decided to raise her."

"Does she know?" asked Will. "The girl, does she know Melanie was her mother?"

"Yes," Melanie's dad said. "She knows."

"I didn't know! Why didn't she tell me?" asked Will. "She knows I love children...She knew..."

"I think she believed you'd be shocked by her decision to give Ginny up," the father-in-law said. "That's why she kept the secret."

"She's Melanie's child," Will said. "So she's MY child too. I'll adopt her if you'll allow it. Let me have Melanie's child, please!"

Melanie's dad was stunned and hesitated. "I love Ginny, but I'm getting old, and my health isn't good..."

Will walked up to Ginny and took her hands. "Hello," he said gently. "I'm Will, your mom's husband, and If you'll let me, I'd like to be your dad. You and your grandfather can come and live with me. What do you think?"

Ginny and Melanie's father moved in with Will, and little by little, they became a family. The happiest day in Will's life was when Ginny finally called him 'dad.'

What can we learn from this story?

• Family is a state of the heart, not a question of biology. After Melanie's death, Will adopted her daughter and took in his late wife's father and they became a family.
• Fear can be a barrier to happiness. If Melanie hadn't been afraid of Will's judgment of her decision as a young woman, she would have told him about Ginny.

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If you enjoyed this story, you might like this one about a recently widowed woman who becomes suspicious when she sees a beautiful young woman crying desperately at her late husband's funeral.

This piece is inspired by stories from the everyday lives of our readers and written by a professional writer. Any resemblance to actual names or locations is purely coincidental. All images are for illustration purposes only. Share your story with us; maybe it will change someone’s life. If you would like to share your story, please send it to info@amomama.com.