REAL LIFE
After Christina McClendon lost her husband, she never thought she’d find love again. Then Alex came along…
When Christina McClendon, now 39, lost her husband BŌdy in October 2020, life seemed bleak for her and their two children, Bailey, 14, and Matthew, 12. But after finding love again with Alex, 40, their family slowly became whole once more, even though the memory of BŌdy never left. So much so, that you can find Alex tending to the roses at the foot of BŌdy’s grave or mowing the grass around the tombstone on his regular visits with Christina.
She says, “After a 13-year marriage with BŌdy, I felt nothing could match up to what we had, but I really believe he handpicked Alex to send to me, and I’m so lucky to have experienced that kind of love twice.”
BŌdy and Christina had known each other since they were teenagers, but since he was six years her senior, Christina never paid him much attention. She went on to have two boys, Julius, now 20, and Devon, now 18, with a different partner. Then, when she was 24 and had split from her boys’ dad, there was a knock at the door.
TRAUMATIC
She explains, “It was a complete surprise. One evening BŌdy was at my door and when I asked him what he was doing there, he said he’d just come to say hello. I invited him in and he got on so well with my kids and my parents. He was so kind, and filled our home with so much happiness that, after that day, I found myself wanting to spend my time with him.”
Things moved quickly between the couple. Christina says, “Within two weeks BŌdy had bought us a place and asked me to move in with him, and within a month I was pregnant with our first daughter, Bailey. I was terrified that he’d leave me when he found out I was expecting, but I had nothing to worry about, BŌdy was over the moon. When Bailey was 11 months old, in September 2009, he proposed to me and we got married.”
As Christina already had her two boys as well, she thought that their family was complete – but BŌdy was keen to try again. She says, “BŌdy was desperate for us to try for a boy, so we did and along came our son Matthew in June 2011.”
They had many happy years as a family, but then things became tough for the couple. In August 2020, they went through a rocky patch and Christina decided she needed time apart from BŌdy, but just two months after that, he was in a terrible car accident. She says, “When I got that call from the hospital I thought BŌdy would be fine, but he suffered a traumatic brain injury and after staying on life support for a week, doctors declared him brain dead. It was horrific news and I had no idea how I would carry on with my life after that, it was so hard to accept.”
