So sorry to hear of your loss, John. While you will always miss your wife, I sincerely hope your pain and sadness has and will continue to decrease with the great healer time.
Back to Queen Victoria, she mourned the loss of Albert for the rest of her life wearing only black, the first ten years of which were spent in seclusion. We have an image of her as being the dour monarch whose sole companion after Albert’s death was the Scotsman John Brown, with whom it has been suggested she conducted a secret affair and some even claim there may have been a marriage. However, these claims cannot be substantiated and are generally dismissed. But there also seems to be some evidence that in her early years she might have been quite a ‘flirt’. Well, as far as the society of the day considered flirtatiousness.
Meeting Albert changed that and I think it is indisputable that while marriages of monarchs were and are generally ‘arranged’ (in as much as they would be introduced to several suitable suitors and marriage outside these choices were frowned upon if not prohibited - remember Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, Charles and Camilla/Diana?) both herself and Albert were devoted to each other.
I personally believe without the support of John Brown she may well not have lived as long a life and may well have remained a recluse for the time she had left.
There is an excellent film
Mrs. Brown in which Billy Connolly (quite out of character) plays the eponymous John Brown. While I cannot vouch for the historical veracity of the production it really is an excellent play. One would like to think that it is a true rendering of their relationship. But only John and Victoria know the truth!
