Dear, is there something you need to tell me?

By Gwen Thompson

Cue the Hollywood romantic pairing of a woman in her mid-twenties with a man twice her age. The previously widowed Susan Blanchard Russwurm is already caring for four children (three from her first marriage and a newborn), only to find her new husband is on his deathbed—and he has a bombshell to share.

Now what? Bankruptcy? Bigamy? Syphilis? Did the mysterious Jamaican boy whose education in Quebec he’d been underwriting flash into her mind? 

All we know for certain is that when her husband acknowledged his paternity in extremis, she took young John Brown Russwurm straight into her heart. And it wasn’t just any teenager the 26-year-old welcomed

Read the full story in the digital magazine above.