Man struggles amid changes after close friend’s passing

DEAR ABBY » I’m a gay man. A friend of more than 20 years, “Marci,” passed away eight months ago after battling cancer for four years. Just a month after the funeral, her wife, “Julia,” started dating. She was engaged four months later and married “Leslie” seven months after that. When they started dating, Leslie was still legally married. My husband and I are godfathers to the one child Marci and Julia had.

I don’t trust Leslie. I think she took advantage of a person who was grieving. She’s a nurse and should know better. I don’t like Leslie, and I don’t like her kids either. They moved into the house Marci and Julia had built together just a few months after Marci’s funeral.

I have pretty much removed myself from the situation. I no longer go to dinners or social gatherings with them. Seeing them together makes my heart hurt and stomach ache. My husband still goes out with them and seems to have no issue with it. It has caused problems between us at times. He doesn’t understand my feelings, and I can’t understand how he can support them. Can you help me cope with this or tell me how I can get him to see my side and end the friendship?

— Still Mourning Marci

DEAR STILL MOURNING »

It might help your husband be more sympathetic to your feelings if you explain you’re still in deep mourning over the loss of a beloved friend, and it affects you physically when you see Julia and Leslie together. He is able to “support them” because, even though their relationship may seem premature, he recognizes they have continued on with their lives.

A way to cope with your pain would be to make a conscious effort to forgive them for their haste AND KEEP FOREMOST IN YOUR MIND THAT YOU PROMISED MARCI YOU WOULD BE A GODPARENT TO HER CHILD. The most effective way for that to happen would be to be present in her child’s life in a way that doesn’t always involve the parents.