Do folks who’ve been married for a long time tend to die within a short time of one another? “Broken heart syndrome” isn’t just a romantic movie cliché; studies have shown that the death rate for widowed persons is 40% higher than for non-married persons of the same age.

Suicide rates among surviving spouses are higher than for the rest of the population, but that’s not the main reason married folks follow one another’s heels to the great beyond. Grief brings on stress, and stress can compromise the body’s immune system. Add to that the all-too-common tendency of the grieving spouse to numb the sorrow with booze or medications, and now they are candidates for heart or liver disease. This is particularly true for older people who have outlived their friends and relatives and have no outside “support system.” The spouse (when alive) was the lone individual that nagged the other to stop smoking, to go to the doctor, to take medications and prescriptions, and to get some exercise.

The highest mortality rate is among those over age 65 who’ve lost a spouse after a long or chronic illness. Even though the natural assumption would be that the survivor would be relieved to be rid of the burden of being a caretaker, the opposite is often true. Older people prefer a daily purpose of some sort and a routine, and when a spouse has a lingering illness, tending to the loved one’s needs becomes the retiree’s new “job.” Once the sick person is gone, the survivor has lost not only a constant companion, but also the main reason for getting out of bed in the morning.