It’s the kind of story that could bring even seasoned investigators to tears. But it’s what the woman behind the story did next that might have brought a lump to your throat. Meet Anita C. Smith, an 83-year-old grandmother who found her deceased husband’s body hanging in their home on Christmas Eve of 2014. Her story was first covered by the Daily Mail. It might not seem like the news would be a tear-jerker, but she told the publication she sat with him for two days as he was nailed to the tree. She told the publication, “I had to be strong for the family and it was the only way to keep my sanity.” The Daily Mail reports: She claimed the man had hanged himself from a ceiling fan at the two-storey home in Boulder, Colorado, and refused to go to hospital or tell his family what had happened. According to the Daily Mail, Smith said she waited for her daughter and the man’s son to leave so she could put on his favorite Christmas dinner and tell him she loved him and appreciated him, all in private before bringing him down from the ceiling fan. In a tearful interview with Fox News she said she had to be strong for the family. “I was told to be strong and that I would make it through this,” she said. “If we had not played Christmas music and if the radio was not on, I don’t think I would have found him,” she told Fox. “He was suspended by his neck from the ceiling fan and from the ceiling. He was a big man and it was difficult to get him down from there, because he was dead weight.” She said a family friend came over to her house as she was preparing to call an ambulance, but when the man’s family arrived at the home the “son was hysterical and blaming me.” Smith eventually called the sheriff’s office to remove the body. “I had to be strong for the family and it was the only way to keep my sanity,” she said. “I just felt this huge sense of relief.” She said she and her husband were “very close” and would go to dinner every night for two years before he died, but since then, “I have felt a deep sense of loss.” The Daily Mail also claims the “jilted” husband was in a same-sex relationship and there is a third person in the mix that may have added another dimension to their relationship. Smith told Fox News the whole family didn’t understand her decision to keep her husband’s body up in the tree for two days before taking him down. “I feel like I was the ‘bad one’,” she said. “All the family members just saw me as the ‘bad one.'” Smith insisted that despite losing her husband of 57 years, “I still live in my house. I have a car and I am independent.” While police were investigating her husband’s death, Smith’s son, son-in-law and grandson allegedly burglarized Smith’s home while she was out with a friend. “It was all an ordeal and I want to let people know they are not alone if they go through something like this,” she told the Daily Mail. “I would have done it different in retrospect, but as time passed, I know what I had to do and I don’t regret it.” So just imagine, even though she is grieving the loss of her husband, she still “had to be strong for the family” and “for the only way to keep her sanity.” The Daily Mail reported that since her story went public, she has received an outpouring of support. “People have offered to help me with my bills,” she said. Smith said she found her husband hanging from the ceiling fan in their bedroom at their home in Boulder, Colorado. He was 74. The Daily Mail reports: The dead man was living in a same-sex relationship and in a second relationship with a third person when he died. His estranged partner, who was identified only as Eric, said the suicide occurred after she had kicked him out of her home. He said Smith had told him she was no longer in love with him and had even found another woman. So he claimed the relationship between the two began deteriorating just before Smith’s husband’s suicide and the woman ended their marriage by filing for divorce. Eric claimed Smith called his mother and told her he was not welcome at his father-in-law’s funeral. Eric said Smith told him: “He wanted you in my life, but that is over.” According to the report, the woman said she wanted the body hanging from the fan for a time for the family to come to terms with his death, and because of his health issues she did not want him to be buried yet. There is a good chance police may eventually investigate Smith’s story, but the Daily Mail reported Smith still isn’t planning to cooperate. She said: “The last thing I want to do is stir up all of this drama, but it seems I will have to. I’ve never been in this position before and will just try to go with the flow. I don’t want to lie about this. I just want to tell the truth.” While we won’t know for sure until Smith tells her story, what if the woman was just a little bit depressed because she was forced to choose between her late husband’s sexual orientation and his being bisexual and having a gay son? There are a lot of issues here. We don’t have enough details to know exactly what happened, but one thing is certain. The Daily Mail reported Smith’s mother said her daughter had been receiving messages via Facebook from a woman named “Lisa” who Smith claims “spent a lot of time at her house.” And Smith is not a fan of that person. “I don’t want to get into it now,” she said. So the whole scenario might have been a huge misunderstanding that went too far. And that may have been why she killed her husband. Smith said her husband was an avid hunter and she kept guns in their home. She added he had struggled with mental issues over the years, and was not being treated. Perhaps she snapped because of this – not because of the bisexuality of a son or a gay relationship. Or perhaps she snapped because of all of it. Regardless, a woman in a bad situation chose to let her late husband’s body hang for two days before taking him down and burying him – but then she started receiving messages from someone who wanted to “steal his money.” If it were true, it would make her story that much more tragic. Smith said she is going to find a place to bury her husband’s body after she takes his body down from the tree because she will need his vehicle to do so. It’s not quite Christmas yet, but you know what they say about Christmases and time: it’s supposed to keep getting shorter.