The Second Time Around

Sharon was born and raised in Connecticut. She met her first husband, Sam, while they were in high school.  They married just after graduating from college. Doug, on the other hand, married later in life. Born in San Antonio, Texas, he traveled as far as Tokyo, Japan before settling in the United States with his first wife, Sue, whom he met at a dance. 

Both Sharon and Doug lost their spouses in 2007 to debilitating illnesses, Sharon in Vero Beach and Doug in Fairfax, Va. Sharon’s loss was compounded. “In 18 months I lost both parents, my husband and our 48-year-old daughter,” she says. “It was devastating but I made the decision to try to get beyond it.” 

When Sam died, Sharon joined hospice. “We all sat around a huge table, and I noticed a gentleman across from me who had a Starbucks,” she recalls of her first meeting. That was Doug. After selling his home in Virginia, he moved to a condo on north Hutchinson Island. The hospice staff in Fairfax had recommended the Vero Beach support group. Doug also remembers seeing Sharon sitting across the room from him that day.