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3 Ways to Fight for Your Marriage When You’re Tempted to Throw in the Towel

"People were placing bets at our wedding. Nobody thought we had a chance."

How to Deal With a Lying Husband and Get a Better Marriage

"I can still remember vividly the look on my husband’s face as regretful tears fell and he lay broken before me."

One Year After “I Do,” Husband Realizes Why Marriage Isn’t for Him

They met when they were 15 and were best friends for 10 years—but after being married just 1 year, the truth hit him HARD.

“That’s My Wife. In Her Wedding Dress. A Dress I Never Got to See Her In”: Husband Grieves the Loss of Wife Who Died Before Their ‘Real Wedding”

“That’s my wife.

In her wedding dress.

A wedding dress that I never got to see her in.


Better Not Bitter Widower

We were married at the courthouse a few days before her first surgery was scheduled to take place.

We rushed there. To become man and wife.

Not knowing if she would make it out of the surgery alive.

After the cancer came back and she was terminal, we decided to plan a real wedding.

She didn’t make it to that real wedding.

She died two weeks before it was scheduled to take place.

I have so many regrets.

Not getting to see her walk down the aisle is atop that list.

But, she got that dress. Her dream dress.

She loved that dress SO much.

While at hospice, she would talk to people about how great the wedding was going to be.

She wasn’t coherent enough to realize that she wasn’t going to make it to there.

Michelle died without me ever seeing her in that dream dress.

A week after she passed away I stumbled across this picture in her phone.

I lay motionless in bed, both happy and devastated.

Tears flowing down my cheeks as I laughed aloud at the memory of how giddy it made her.

My bride.

In her dress.

I want to live a long life.

I want to remarry and have grandkids.

I want to write and teach.

I want to spread my message to the world.

I want to tell them everything I have learned about love, loss, grief and healing.

But.

When it is my time, I am running up there.

No – I am sprinting up there!

To see her.

#in #that #dress

John says he plans to save Michelle’s dream dress for her daughter’s wedding day, so that the legacy of his beautiful bride may carry on.

Since it was shared on the Love What Matters Facebook page, the stepdad’s bittersweet story has tugged on the heartstrings of thousands across the web who are joining together to grieve this widower’s loss—but most importantly, “to celebrate his love.”

Kelsey Straeter
Kelsey Straeter
Kelsey is an editor at Outreach. She’s passionate about fear fighting, freedom writing, and the pursuit of excellence in the name of crucifying perfectionism. Glitter is her favorite color, 2nd only to pink, and 3rd only to pink glitter.

3 Ways to Fight for Your Marriage When You’re Tempted to Throw in the Towel

"People were placing bets at our wedding. Nobody thought we had a chance."

How to Deal With a Lying Husband and Get a Better Marriage

"I can still remember vividly the look on my husband’s face as regretful tears fell and he lay broken before me."

One Year After “I Do,” Husband Realizes Why Marriage Isn’t for Him

They met when they were 15 and were best friends for 10 years—but after being married just 1 year, the truth hit him HARD.