{"id":7410,"date":"2026-10-11T21:46:44","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T21:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalnews25.com\/?p=7410"},"modified":"2026-10-11T21:46:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T21:46:44","slug":"my-late-husband-captained-a-cruise-ship-for-years-but-i-was-always-too-afraid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalnews25.com\/?p=7410","title":{"rendered":"My Late Husband Captained A Cruise Ship For Years, But I Was Always Too Afraid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Frank\u2019s letter began the way he began every anniversary card: To my mermaid. He wrote it the week the doctors told us there was nothing left to do. He prayed that even if he couldn\u2019t be there, I would still find my courage. \u201cYou were never afraid of the sea,\u201d he wrote. \u201cYou were afraid of being far from home. So I\u2019m sending home to you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Inside the box, wrapped in tissue paper, lay a midnight-blue gown, the exact color of the dress I wore the night we met. Forty-four silver balloons had risen from around it and were bumping softly against the ceiling, one for every year we were married. Pinned to the gown was a small card in Frank\u2019s handwriting. Put this on. Someone is waiting for you in the ballroom at eight. And it isn\u2019t me.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;margin: 20px 0\">\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/digitalnews25.com\/?p=7408\" class=\"pulse-btn\"><br \/>\n    CONTINUE READING \u2192<br \/>\n  <\/a>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Frank\u2019s letter began the way he began every anniversary card: To my mermaid. He wrote it the week the doctors told us there was nothing left to&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7411,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>My Late Husband Captained A Cruise Ship For Years, But I Was Always Too Afraid - FUN STORIES<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/digitalnews25.com\/?p=7410\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My Late Husband Captained A Cruise Ship For Years, But I Was Always Too Afraid - FUN STORIES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Frank\u2019s letter began the way he began every anniversary card: To my mermaid. 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