Sunday, December 14, 2003

By Nancy Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Four years ago, when her husband, Ed, died, Betsy Evans found it rugged adjusting to life alone.

	Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette Betsy Evans, 63, keeps busy as a widow after 40 years of marriage. Click photo for larger image.

"It was hard at first -- very hard -- especially in the morning because that's when I had to do a lot of things for him."

Ed, her mate of 40 years, died of multiple sclerosis after spending the past 18 years in a wheelchair.

It took a year for Evans to rediscover her social life. "Oh, I went out, but I had to push myself because I felt I should go out."

Now, a typical week includes at least one movie or symphony concert (or both), lunch and dinner at a restaurant, volunteer day at Beth Shalom pre-school in Squirrel Hill, a bit of gardening, baby-sitting a grandchild or two and walking with her yellow Lab, U.C.

She attends as many Steelers games as she can, enjoys watching the occasional symphony on WQED and is a voracious reader.

Also on her agenda are Pitt football games ("when my son-in-law invites me") and all her grandson's baseball games.

Evans met her late husband in the late 1950s, when she was a French horn player with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

"That was my first job," she said. "It lasted three years."

Motherhood was her second. She and Ed had three daughters, Beth Evans, Randi Weiss and Amy Wedner, all married and living in Pittsburgh.

Her third job was co-owning the Regent Square Theater for 18 years with business partner Nadine Sales.

That job was a necessity to boost the family income. Ed had had to give up his business, Pittsburgh Bag & Burlap Co., on the North Side, for health reasons years before.

"We had three kids to put through school, so I went back to work," Evans said.

The petite 63-year-old doesn't consider herself a senior citizen, nor is she seeking another mate.

Sure, she gets lonely, but "I just find something to do and get over it."

She also understands why some widows look for male companionship.

"A lot of women from my generation were not used to doing anything at all by themselves, whereas I did a lot by myself.

"Ed and I did a lot together, but we did things separately, too, so I could function on my own when I had to."

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