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What to think? I dunno.

I think Art Bell has always been whacked, and a little too weird for me to 'get' most of the time. The gushing and the love songs sound a little hard to bear, I'm sure I'd have turned it off.

Many want to criticize him for his choices here... both because she is very young and Phillipa, and also because his wife died only recently.

On the one hand, I'm don't think highly of men who seek young foreign brides. I think they do it to find a wife who has all the qualities of a Golden Retriever. Goldens are nice dogs, but they're a lazy trainer's dog... you don't have to be a good master in order for them to worship you. :~D Not sure where the men who regularly proclaim the desirability of young foreign mail order brides on other threads are...

On the other hand, much of the criticism seems to dwell on the time since his wife's death. I have no reason to fault him on that. I take it, from reading the thread, that one of Art Bell's favorite slogans is "life is short". Well, for someone his age who has seen death, I think he knows how true that is. My mom married a great man after my folks divorced, and they had a great marriage. He was terrific for her and to her while she had cancer and died. A few months after my mom's death, he became involved with a woman who had been an acquaintance of both of them while my mom was alive. While she was younger than he, she was at least in the 'cover the grey' phase of life, she wasn't two generations younger. I didn't particularly like her, but I was polite and very happy for him to have found another chance at companionship in his old age. I don't wish loneliness on anyone. He died suddenly less than a year after my mom did. How long should he have grieved?

John O.... can't help but ping you to this thread.

John O.... can't help but ping you to this thread.

While I want a younger wife to raise a family with 40 years difference is way too young.

Oddly enough there's a young girl at church who makes my heart ache. I'm way too old for her and yet I don't have any sons to marry her off to. What a waste of a great girl that I have no way to get into my family. Bummer. (She's both very cute and very sweet. and she also bakes great bread.)

I know that God will bring me the perfect woman at the right time.

That reminds me of a friend who was a companion to a lady about 17 years older and she too did died of cancer, a few years later he befriend a young lady of the niece a friend well they got too close and now that poor man in his late 70's is a father to twins about 6 years now!

People find companionship where they can!

BTW he was a leading opera singer in Europe and his lady friend was also a singer but not as well known.

The young lady he fell for was a writer!

You just never know!