Abby Connolly
While it’s great to honor our late loved ones in a special way whenever possible, there are some circumstances where it isn’t necessary or would be too much.
One man isn’t sure what to do after his former mother-in-law began pressuring him to leave a seat open in honor of his late wife at his upcoming wedding.
He lost his wife 12 years ago when he was still quite young. It took him a long time to grieve and recover, but he eventually realized that to move on, he needed to do whatever made him happy.
He met his current fiancée seven years ago and was very careful with how he approached their relationship, wanting to honor his past relationship while making room for a new one. His fiancée was extremely understanding and respectful of the fact that he was a widow.
“I’m going to get married in November; at first, I didn’t know whether to invite my first wife’s family because I didn’t know if they would want to attend,” he said.
“I never said anything to them or invited them to the wedding, and I don’t talk with them except for a text every few months.”
However, when he told his former mother-in-law about his upcoming wedding, she expressed that she’d like to go, so he invited her and her husband. While he felt having them there would be a bit strange, he didn’t want to say no.
Later, while talking to his mom about plans for the wedding, she mentioned that his former mother-in-law told him it’d be nice if he left an empty chair open at the ceremony and reception.
This stumped him, especially considering his mother-in-law didn’t talk to him about this directly.
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