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Love has a way of turning up in the most unlikely places, as widow Kaitlin Norton has discovered.
Kaitlin (30), from New Hampshire in the US, lost her husband of four years, Aaron Smith, to suicide in 2016. He was 22.
Aaron's brother, Rory, who was in prison on assault charges when Aaron died, called Kaitlin upon his release to offer his condolences.
Rory and Kaitlin never got along when Aaron was alive, said Kaitlin, who'd also been a drug addict.
“He couldn't believe that his brother was dating me. He couldn't believe that I had a baby with his brother, and then he couldn't believe that me and his brother got married. We hated each other,” Kaitlin says.
That first phone call after Aaron's death changed things, Rory says.
“I guess the conversation I had with Kait showed a different side of her that hadn’t seen before – compassion and understanding,” Rory adds.
“Rory called me, and it was just so weird," Kaitlin recalls.
"I wasn't expecting his voice to remind me of Aaron so much. It was such a comfort."
It wasn’t long until Kaitlin began flirting with Rory, and he reciprocated. Kaitlin was struck by similarities in the brothers that she hadn't noticed before.
“That gene pool is so strong. The way that they move, the way that they talk, it's so similar,” she says.
Kaitlin was in rehab when she threatened Aaron with divorce because he was still on drugs.
For a long time, she says, she believed she was responsible for his death.
"I've dealt with a lot of guilt over that but I'm at a place now where I don't think it's my fault really."
However, their families were unimpressed when things started getting serious between Kaitlin and Rory.
"At first, they were openly like, 'That's f***ed up'."
But Kaitlin didn't care what anyone thought and says her mother-in-law, Jess, has come around to the idea of them being a couple, even telling her that Rory was a better fit for her.
“But once I looked at it the way [Rory] was looking at it – you can’t help who you have feelings for,” Jess said.
It's now seven years since that life-changing phone call, and the couple are raising four children together: Rory Jr (12), Rory’s son from a previous relationship, Aaron and Kaitlin's son, Camden (9), and the daughters they had together as a couple, Preslee (5) and Madilynn (4).
Going from calling Rory uncle to calling him dad was confusing for Camden at first.
“There were times that he'd slip up and say, ‘Uncle Rory, I mean, Dad’, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, that's kind of weird’,” Kaitlin says.
But not everyone is as accepting of their relationship.
Kaitlin, who has shared her story on TikTok, says they often have to deal with cyberbullying, but they don’t let it affect their lives.
“Something bad happened to her, and something bad happened to me, and we ended up finding comfort in one another. The negativity doesn’t do anything to us,” Rory explains.
SOURCES: TRULY, DAILYSTAR, TIKTOK
