85: Terrible Loss, Unexpected Love
When remarriage happens after the death of a spouse, the stepcouple faces unique and hard-to-navigate circumstances related to grief and leftover feelings from those experiences. Ron Deal talks with Bill and Evelyn Thompson, who both lost their spouses prior to remarriage, on how to blend a stepfamily after death and what they wish they'd done differently in their early years of dating and remarriage.
Show Notes
About the Host
About the Guest
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Ron Deal
Ron L. Deal is one of the most widely read and viewed experts on blended families in the country. He is Director of FamilyLife Blended® for FamilyLife®, founder of Smart Stepfamilies™, and the author and Consulting Editor of the Smart Stepfamily Series of books including the bestselling Building Love Together in Blended Families: The 5 Love Languages® and Becoming Stepfamily Smart (with Dr. Gary Chapman), The Smart Stepfamily: 7 Steps to a Healthy Family, and Preparing to Blend. Ron is a licensed marriage and family therapist, popular conference speaker, and host of the FamilyLife Blended podcast. He and his wife, Nan, have three sons and live in Little Rock, Arkansas. Learn more at FamilyLife.com/blended.
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Bill and Evelyn Thompson
Blended families are born out of loss. Bill and Evelyn know this all too well suffering the loss of their beloved first spouses. Bill’s first wife, Margie, succumbed to breast cancer after a valiant 13 year battle. Evelyn suddenly and tragically was widowed when her first husband Rick, the commander of STS-107, perished as the Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart minutes before its return to earth. Both strong believers of Jesus Christ, they trusted in the Lord to heal their shattered hearts...more
When remarriage occurs after the death of a spouse, the stepcouple faces emotional minefields in relationship-building. Ron Deal talks with Bill & Evelyn Thompson, who both lost a spouse prior to remarriage, on how to blend a family after significant loss.