“He always said, ‘I can’t go until she does because I gotta stay here for her.’ And she would say the same thing.” 

One of our most-read stories of all time tells of Norma and Gordon Yeager, a couple that died in 2011 after a car accident. The Yeagers were rushed to the hospital following the collision and given a shared room in intensive care. Though they were “not really responsive,” they held hands as they lay there, side-by-side. At 3:38 p.m, Gordon passed away, but, then, his family noticed his heart monitor was still beeping. “It was really strange,” Dennis says. Then a nurse looked and saw that the couple’s hands were still clasped. “Her heart was beating through him and [the monitor was] picking it up,” Dennis says. At 4:48 p.m., one hour after her husband, Norma passed away as well. “Neither one of them would’ve wanted to be without each other,” says their daughter, Donna Sheets. “We were very blessed, honestly, that they went this way.”

The couple who died holding hands

Dear Abby: My boyfriend is going to be 20 years old next month. I’d like to give him something nice for his birthday. What do you think he’d like? —Carol
Dear Carol: Nevermind what he’d like, give him a tie.

Dear Abby: Our son married a girl when he was in the service. They were married in February and she had an 8 1/2-pound baby girl in August. She said the baby was premature. Can an 8 1/2-pound baby be this premature? —Wanting to Know
Dear Wanting: The baby was on time. The wedding was late. Forget it. 

Here, 13 of Dear Abby’s best zingers.

Prenuptial boudoir photos are so… two weeks ago — the new hot trend in wedding photography, according to the New York Daily News, is “sexy” photos taken of the happy couple on the morning after their wedding night.

For these morning-after photo shoots, the wedding photographer comes into the pair’s home, honeymoon suite, or wherever they spent their first night together as a married couple to capture the rumpled, unmade bed, and the bride and groom in various stages of intimacy and undress. 

Morning-after photos: The latest sexy wedding trend

Photo: Brooke Fasani/CORBIS 

A new study by researchers at SUNY Albany claims to have identified an unexpected weapon against depression: Unprotected sex.

Apparently, semen is rich in chemicals that help increase a partner’s happiness, mood, and even quality of sleep. But before you gloomily toss those problematic condoms in the trash, there are a few things you should know.

(Source: theweek.com)

A new trend in wedding photos has arrived: The boudoir photography session

The word boudoir dates back to the Victorian era when it referred to a lady’s private rooms, which she used for dressing or bathing. By extension, boudoir photography describes shots that capture a woman simulating such private activities.

The photos show women in lingerie, or without lingerie, posing coyly or provocatively. Brides, who represent the bulk of boudoir clients, “often bring veils, garters, and wedding night lingerie, but their future spouses’ favorite sports jerseys or work shirts are also popular,” says Ruiz at The Daily.

Regrettable fad, or empowering form of body art?

(Source: theweek.com)

Say you’re out on a date with someone new, and the person who sparklingly met all the usual pre-date prerequisites turns out to be… far from what you expected. What do you do? Enter eHarmony’s Bad Date Rescue app, which can be preprogrammed to call you with a ‘fake’ emergency, allowing you to believably excuse yourself while sparing the other person’s feelings.

Here’s how it works.

Do women prefer to date nerds? A new analysis by researchers at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville suggests that long ago, women started turning down strong, confident Alpha males in favor of Beta men who were more devoted. 

Here, a concise guide to why women prefer geeky guys.

(Source: theweek.com)

With this ring, I thee divorce

French designer Gisèle Ganne has created a line of divorce rings ($1,348) for the woman ready to convey to the world “a defiant ‘I don’t.’” Ganne’s designs subvert traditional wedding symbols by combining a bird skull with a bride’s bouquet and a single gem. The ring can be used to celebrate, advertise, or mourn the end of a union, and the long beak has a decidedly insolent look on the hand. The pieces are available in 18-karat gold or silver, and there’s even a knuckle-duster — “for those who are going through a really bad divorce.”

A Scottish designer named Joanna Montgomery has created a product called “Pillow Talk” to ease the pain of long distance relationships. Each member of a couple wears a special ring sensor at night, and places a fabric panel inside his or her pillowcase. When one person goes to bed, the ring wirelessly communicates with his lover’s pillow and causes it to gently glow. When he puts his head on the pillow, he can hear the real-time heartbeat of his partner, no matter how far away.

An oldie but a goodie: The pillow that makes long-distance relationships less lonely

Introducing the divorce expo. It’s like a wedding expo — only instead of vendors selling wedding dresses and bouquets, life coaches, financial planners, family counselors, and even hairstylists are on hand to help “new divorcees field the brave, new life of singledom,” says Erica Ho at TIME.

Attendees can also get tips on dating and sex, which could be especially valuable “if you’ve been with the same person for five, 10, or 20 years,” says Cindy Perman at CNBC. “Your waistline is different now, your hairline is different, your dating pool is different — and dating is different.”

Keep reading

In this month’s lengthy Atlantic cover story, titled “All the Single Ladies,” Kate Bolick explores why more and more American women are spending more – if not all – of their adult lives unmarried. Here, the most interesting takeaways:

• Women don’t need husbands the way they used to
  The median age at which Americans get married for the first time is 28 for men and 26 for women, writes Bolick. That’s up from 23 for men and 20 for women 50 years ago. And in the past 15 years, the percentage of people who are married has dropped from 29 percent to 22 percent. Why? For one reason, women “no longer need husbands to have children,” Bolick writes. Forty percent of children are born to single mothers. Adoption and in vitro fertilization are changing the stigma of single motherhood, too. Women have also gained on men in terms of education and employment, making them increasingly less reliant on a husband for financial support.

• A lot of men are deadbeats or players
  In societies in which women outnumber men, posits one popular theory, men become promiscuous and commitment-averse. While the numbers of men and women are essentially equal in the U.S., “marriageable” women outnumber “marriageable” men and, as such, those men seek out multiple partners and are unlikely to settle down. “We’re contending with a new ‘dating gap,’” Bolick says, “where marriage-minded women are increasingly confronted with either deadbeats or players.” Perhaps, she says, women are better off staying single than settling for men who aren’t “marriageable.”

• Open marriages are more common
  Unconventional arrangements — ranging from the rise of gay marriage to polygamy — are causing some heterosexuals to question their own conventions, embracing open marriages or turning a blind eye to cheating, Bolick asserts. The “two hallmarks of contemporary marriage” are evolving: Monogamy and candor. This may not be so surprising, considering that societal change is typically the greatest during periods of “extraordinary economic flux,” such as the one we’re in.

More revelations here

The non-partisan Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report on Tuesday recommending that birth control be classified as preventive medicine under President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. The IOM says such a change would lower the rates of unintended pregnancy and abortion, help women better space out their pregnancies, and spur a number of beneficial health developments for women.

If the Department of Health and Human Services adopts this guideline, insurers would have to cover 100 percent of the cost of contraceptives, with no co-pay.