Heartbroken Widow Hounded By In-Laws To Return Wedding Ring After Husband's Passing

May 16, 2022

Losing someone special in your life can be extremely difficult to overcome. It's important to grieve and mourn their loss until you are ready to move forward with your life. For one heartbroken widow, she has been struggling to move on from her husband's death, and her in-laws have not offered any help to the situation. In fact, they have done quite the opposite and made her life absolutely miserable.

Originally posted on July 2, 2021, to Reddit, the social media user explained how she lost her longtime partner about six months ago. They had been together for a total of seven years and were happily married for one and a half years. It has been especially challenging for her to grieve the loss of someone she loved so dearly, and her in-laws have not made it any easier as they have been demanding that she give them the jewelry that Daniel, her late husband, had bought for her. Over the course of their relationship, Daniel had gifted the unnamed woman with an engagement ring, wedding ring and an eternity band.

Struggling to come to terms with the loss of her husband, the woman had a hard time understanding why his family is demanding she gives her rings to them. The post has since been deleted, but has been circulating around the web and has also sparked a conversation in reaction to the widow asking for advice on how to handle the challenging situation. While some think it makes sense that the family wants something to remember their son by, others have stood by the widow since she is also going through the stages of grief.

The Reddit user did not give any details but explained that Daniel died after an accident, as per Cafe Mom. Prior to this, he had given her an engagement ring, wedding ring and eternity band, which was a wedding anniversary present celebrating their first year together as a married couple.

The grieving wife expressed that her heart was broken following Daniel's sudden death. Though she did not elaborate on what led to her husband's passing, her grief of losing him was very clear in her post. "It still doesn't feel real, but I'm trying to live life the way he'd want me to every day," she wrote.

The OP also explained, "I haven’t had much contact with his family since the funeral 6 months ago," and added, "I suppose we were all hurting and need to heal."

She elaborated that at the time of writing her post, she had heard from her sister-in-law, and their interaction shocked her. 

"My SIL wants me to return all the rings to them, as they say that Daniel paid for them and because he has died, they belong to the family," the widow explained. She didn't want to part with the rings since she said that they remind her of the best time of her life. "I'm getting squeezed by his family to give them these rings," she wrote. "I don't know if they just want them to sell or own, or what."

For any person, being asked to return something of such significance is extremely heartbreaking and she did not know what to do when thrown into this position.

To top it off, the OP would not have expected that her husband's family would treat her this way merely six months after his passing.  Unfortunately, the family has pushed her away. "Daniel and I didn't have kids, so I suppose I'm (no) longer family," she explained.

The OP felt conflicted about what to do and whether she was right to feel offended by their request. When she asked for advice about what she should do, Reddit users delivered and showed up in support of the grieving widow. "Asking for a widow's wedding rings six months after losing her husband is deeply messed up," one user wrote, as per Cafe Mom. "Yeah, he paid for them… as gifts for you," another explained. "And as you were his spouse, his assets go to you anyway unless he had a will that states otherwise."

There was immense support for the OP in the comments, and one person even suggested that she take a legal route and advised, "Actually, I’d go ahead and hire a lawyer to send them a cease-and-desist letter for the harassment. The ex-ILs have zero claim to these rings; they wouldn’t have a claim even if they were heirlooms." The commenter also added, "The cruelty to a recent widow is astounding." 

There have been no updates from the OP about the current state of her situation and what she ended up doing, but it is heartening to see that she received support from the most unlikely place after going through a truly difficult time. 

Who do you think is right in this situation: the widow or the family? Let us know, and be sure to pass this on to your family and friends, too.