Apparently you can.

I read a New York Times article about this a couple of weeks ago. Apparently a recent study showed that your odds of having a heart attack are 21 times higher the day after a loved one dies.

This reminded me of my second great-grandfather’s brother, Valentine Scheiber. He dropped dead at the funeral of a friend on a hot day in Chicago in June 1906. He was only 53.

I also have a 60-year-old husband who died a week after his wife. The obituary from the [Albert Lea, Minnesota] Evening Tribune on 7 August 1907 (page 1, column 1) said:

Ole Hageness died at his home on Oak Street shortly after 6 o’clock Tuesday evening of typhoid pneumonia. He had been ill for several weeks, and the sudden death of his wife at Fargo last Tuesday seemed to break him down completely.

Now, Ole was pretty sick to begin with…but wow. What a tough week that must have been for the six grown children he left behind.

Do you have stories like this in your family tree?

Photo by Sister72

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