Widowed Dad Whose Photo Tribute to Wife Went Viral Finds Love Again

He felt certain he would never fall in love again

Ben Nunery, with help from his 3-year-old daughter, re-created a series of images he first posed for with his wife, Ali, on their 2009 wedding day. The tribute to his first wife, who died from a rare form of lung cancer, went viral after a "Today"article in Dec. 2013. At the time, Nunery felt certain he would never fall in love again.

“I'm going to be this sad single father for the rest of my life. That was just my destiny and I was convinced of it,” Ben, 37, told "Today" in a recent interview.

After his wife's death, Nunery reconnected with his college friends Lesley and Mike Amann, but before long Mike was diagnosed with cancer.

After his death, Leslie and Ben provided each other support, and eventually their friendship progresed into somthing romantic.

“He was one person I didn’t have to talk about what happened with because he got it,” said Lesley, 36. “It was nice to have someone to do things with who understood, and you didn’t even have to explain anything.”

The couple married in June, and in November they welcomed a child together, Nash.

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