Dear Maggie,

I know you usually advise people to be positive, but I just don’t know how someone in my circumstances can be. I’m married to the best man in the world, but he’s fifteen years older than I am. We’ve been together for thirty-seven wonderful years. And we’ve been happier than any two people could be. But now he’s seventy and I’m fifty five, and he’s had a heart attack, had two surgeries, is diabetic, and just seems to be having one health crisis after another. He tries to act the same as always – but I know he’s feeling his age. And I can see that he’s going downhill, and the reality is that I’ll soon have years of life to face without him, and I just can’t even imagine being without him. How do you suggest I find a positive way to think about that? I need something, because the thought of it is breaking my heart every single day.

Signed,

Future Widow