Post #184 - Life After Death?

I'm back; my husband died suddenly on New Year's Day - he was sixty-three years old. It's now almost three months on and it's getting better but it's still a daily struggle.

The thing that's been most difficult to cope with is certain horrible people have felt the need to try and screw me over - sometimes literally. Yes - married men taking advantage of an autistic and bipolar woman's grief. It's very difficult to fathom why anyone would ever do that. Fear not: one got their wife told via LinkedIn [yeah, I know that informing people about their unfaithful spouses isn't the primary aim of the business network, but hey ho.] That ended in phone calls, email threats, a postal threat and ultimately a report to the Metropolitan Police as Mrs X was threatening to come to my house and shout at me; my autistic son also told his school who raised it as a safeguarding issue.

The other bloke, a grandfather in his seventies whom I met through a local environmental group, was very clever indeed and groomed me over two or so years. After a traumatic incident including a Bully XL dog during a volunteer gardening session he started visiting me at home but it didn't step up until after my husband died. This bloke has three daughters who are all around my age, so I thought that he was being fatherly and kind - he lent a sympathetic ear [my parents are both autistic themselves and didn't offer a huge amount of support.]

Over time he basically rubbished my late husband's memory, suggested that I remove my wedding ring and 'go out and have some fun with men' - I told him all about Mr X (see above). He was also grooming another vulnerable woman from the same Friends Group. One Thursday he visited and was overtly sexual - telling me that "you're big but you're attractive" and commenting about the size of my breasts. He then proceeded to tell me, in excruciating detail all about how an ex-girlfriend's mother had "introduced him to oral sex". Yuck - he's gross looking, smells and has about five teeth. As he was leaving he went in for a kiss on the mouth, something I absolutely abhorred. He said "I'd missed them lips (sic)" and then tried to French Kiss me. Yeah. I obviously didn't return the favour. When he left I burst into tears and wondered whether anyone would believe me. I told some mates via WhatsApp and then emailed my support worker at the Council who told me to tell him what he'd done wrong via WhatsApp and then block him. The stupid man had admitted his "advance" on a WhatsApp message so I had written evidence of his crime - and it was a sexual assault.

I then reported him to the council employees who co-ordinate the voluntary work. They agreed that his behaviour was unacceptable and spoke to him.