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From The New York Times and WBUR Boston, this is Modern Love.

Stories of Love, Laws, and Redemption.

I'm your host, Megna Chakrabardi.

When Patty Dan met her husband, Willow, she was in her late 30s.

Her dreams of a lifelong partner and family were all but complete, but then reality struck.

Many driver stars in the ABC comedy speechless.

Here she is reading Patty Dan's essay, Our Story Ended, with a Slow Fade to Black.

The Snowy Night I met Willow and a synagogue in New York City.

I knew we would marry, but I did not know that it would only last 10 years.

He was sitting in front of me and I fell in love with the back of his neck.

The floor sloped down to the front so I didn't realise he was 6'3",

more than a foot taller than I was.

He was from the Netherlands, the son of a man and night minister who was drawn to Judaism.

I was the child of suburban assimilated Jews.

He was almost 40 and had never wed, and I was 37 and had just about given up on men, Jewish or otherwise.

Soon after, he dragged me to the Lower East Side where we met an old rabbi who looked at us a bit of scant and said wisely,

you will have a sweet and crazy life together, which we did.

Nine years later, in April, our little family, Willum, Jake, our three-year-old son and I visited a friend's sheep farm in Connecticut.

The return to New York, Willum parked the car on the street near our apartment.

We walked from the car with Jake riding on Willum shoulders.

In the middle of the block I said, should we get the car seat? Willum said, what's a car seat?

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