My father remarried before my mother’s clothes left the wardrobe

Dear Delyara, My mother died fourteen months ago. My father married someone else last weekend. He is seventy-three, lonely, and entitled to companionship. I understand every reasonable argument. I still cannot stand seeing another woman wearing Mum’s apron. Father asked me to help her clear space in the wardrobe. My mother’s dresses were still hanging there, some with dry-cleaning tags from before she became ill. His new wife touched one blue dress and asked whether I wanted it before she donated anything. She was being considerate. I hated her for touching the sleeve. At dinner, she cooked my father’s favourite meal and he laughed more than I have heard him laugh since Mum died. That should have comforted me. Instead, I went into the bathroom and cried like a child whose father had been unfaithful, even though the marriage ended in death and he kept every vow until the end. My grief believes loyalty should keep him lonely. My love for him knows how cruel that is. I cannot make those two parts of me sit at the same table without one of them resenting his happiness.