Yesterday, former President George H W Bush buried his beloved wife of 73 years, Barbara Bush.  Today, the 93-year old has been admitted to the hospital and is currently in intensive care.

A statement released Monday from Bush’s office stated the former sitting president was admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital on Sunday morning “after contracting an infection that spread to his blood.”

His office added Bush has been “responding to treatments and appears to be recovering.”

The 93-year-old Bush was present for the public viewing Friday of his wife Barbara Bush at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church. Barbara Bush passed away last Tuesday at 92.

The couple had been married for 73 years.-  ABC7 News

The elder Bush’s love story was no secret. It’s quite possible that George HW Bush is already looking forward to being reunited with the love of his life. Could the onset of his serious health condition be related to the “widowhood effect”?

According to the Seattle Times, researchers have a name for the increased probability of death among grieving mates within weeks or months of their spouses’ passing: the “widowhood effect.”

 Among elderly couples, according to Harvard University sociologists, men are 22 percent more likely to die shortly after the death of a spouse, compared with 17 percent for women.

And a National Institute on Aging study found that race plays a part in the widowhood effect, with white partners aged 67 or older more likely than elderly African Americans to succumb early in bereavement.

Findings on the widowhood effect don’t come as news to medical professionals, who have observed similar patterns of increased mortality.

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