DEAR ABBY: I, too, have read the letter from "Longtime Reader, New York State," who was offended by her husband wearing the wedding ring from his former marriage. My story is a bit different.
My first husband and I were married 56 wonderful years. Two years after he died, a man who belonged to the same senior club as I asked me for a date. Five weeks later we were married. I had always thought that a person could only love once. I was wrong. We spent five happy years together, until his death at age 90.
A month later, a friend of mine died at the nursing home where she had been a patient for two years following a serious stroke. Two weeks later, her widowed husband called to visit. Three weeks later we were married. He asked me if I would wear his wife's rings, or if I wanted new ones. I knew that most of his resources had been swallowed up during his wife's illness, so I told him that if her rings fit, I'd be proud to wear them. They did fit. I had known this couple for about six years and I knew he was a good man. It was breathtakingly fast, and now we are both very happy.
On our dining room wall hang four photographs. One is of John and his wife, another of me and my first husband, another of me and my second husband -- and in the center, a picture of John and me. Neither of us is jealous of our partner's past life. We're too busy being in love with each other. -- MARY BURKHARDT, THOUSAND OAKS, CALIF.
DEAR MARY: Life is for the living, and I commend you and John for living it to the fullest, and for affirming that love is not necessarily limited to once in a lifetime. My warmest congratulations to you both.