At Wife’s Funeral, Widower Finds Out She Has Been Married to Another Man All Her Life – Story of the Day

My wife, Jessica, died, and our lawyer showed up at her funeral with some terrible news — I was apparently not her only husband. I had no idea because we had been together for 60 years. Then I met her other husband and discovered something shocking.

"Mr. Stanley, may I speak to you for a moment?" I looked up from my lap at the church bench to find our lawyer, Mr. Sternberg, staring at me. Nodding, I heaved myself up and walked a bit away from my daughter, Fiona, and the rest of the funeral attendees.

We were at my wife Jessica's funeral. It was a sad occasion, and our young lawyer had become a good family friend. He handled everything about the estate and also came to pay his respects. But I had no idea what he wanted now.

"Is there anything wrong, Mr. Sternberg? Thank you for coming by the way," I said when we were out of reach from others.

"Of course. You and Mrs. Stanley were dear friends. But there's something pressing I need to tell you. I've debated whether to do it here, and maybe, it's not the best time, but you need to know," the lawyer said, a sense of urgency in his tone.

"Tell me," I responded, frowning.

"About Mrs. Stanley's estate and her life insurance… well, they are not going directly to you and your daughter. It appears Mrs. Stanley was married to someone else," Mr. Sternberg revealed gently, but I froze in my place.

I started shaking my head. "No. That's impossible. We've been together for 60 years. You must be mistaken."

"I've checked a million times and I'm certain of it. I'll need to schedule a meeting at my office quickly, so I can introduce the man to you. I think this matter will only be resolved when you two speak," Mr. Sternberg finished. He patted my shoulder and walked away to one of the benches in the back while I was left slack-jawed.

***

A few days later, Fiona and I were driving to Mr. Sternberg's office in Pasadena. I had just told her what our lawyer said at the funeral. To my surprise, she wasn't that shocked about it.

"Why aren't you more stunned, honey?" I asked her, focusing on the road.

"Well… didn't you and Mom get divorced at some point?" Fiona wondered, and it was then I finally remembered that minor but painful glitch in our relationship.

"I… but she couldn't have gotten married again. We divorced and were separated for less than a year. It's impossible," I stuttered.

"Mom told me about it. She said you fought a lot a year after your wedding, and she lived with my grandparents for a time. It could've happened then. I know they never liked you," she continued.

"But… it's just… why didn't she tell me? Why did she come back to me if she was married?" I asked. Sadly, the only person who could answer those questions was gone.

"You didn't think about getting married again after you got back together?" Fiona asked.

"Not really. We just picked up where we left off. I didn't think it mattered at all," I answered, wanting to kick myself for not talking about that stuff back then.

***

"Mr. Stanley, Fiona, this is Mr. Clark," Mr. Sternberg said, directing my and my daughter's attention to the stranger in his office. He was about my age, tall, and dressed in an expensive business suit.

Mr. Clark extended his hand and said, "Call me Henry, please. It's nice to meet you, although the circumstances are not so great."

"Yeah," I muttered, shaking the man's hand as if in a trance.

We all sat down and stared at each other in awkward silence until Henry spoke up. "I'll cut to the chase then. I assume you knew nothing about me until now. Correct?"

Fiona and I nodded with wide, confused eyes.

He continued, "Well, it happened many years ago. I never wanted to get married, but my parents told me about their friends' daughter. They said I would look better as a businessman if I had a wife. She was newly divorced and had no children. We met briefly, and essentially let our parents handle everything. It was a civil ceremony, nothing fancy, nothing special really. We were never really man and wife after that."

"I don't understand," I whispered, feeling tears in my eyes, but I refused to let them out.

"It was basically a business transaction. Then a few months later, she said that she was going back to her ex-husband. I was fine with that but told her we needed to get divorced. But Jessica… well, she was worried about you finding out. So we kept postponing it and postponing it until we forgot about each other," Henry explained carefully.

"You never formed a family of your own?" Fiona questioned, holding my hands on the office armchairs.

"No, I never wanted any of that. I only cared about business," Henry replied, grinning at last. "And to that end, I came here to say that I don't want whatever the law states I should get. We might have been married on paper, but Jessica was not truly my wife at all. You can keep all of it."

"Are you sure, Mr. Clark?" the lawyer verified, his hands folded together on his desk.

"100% sure," Henry reiterated. "May I leave now? Again, it was nice to meet you. I'm sorry for your loss and for this crazy surprise."

The man walked out of the office without another word, and I finally calmed down. Despite what happened all those years ago, Jessica had only ever been my wife in all the ways that mattered.

"Ok, let's get this done, then, Mr. Sternberg," Fiona prompted their lawyer, smiling at me.

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