It's quite possible that a sister of the late wife had been living with 
the family for years, helping with
the children, and knew both everyone in the household quite well as well 
as how the household
was run.

There were no career opportunities for single white women in Colonial 
Virginia. A single white
woman could live with family if no gentlemen showed up with an interest 
in marriage. However,
if she were Catholic and there was means enough, she could arrange to 
enter an English-
speaking nuns' monastery in Europe.

Elizabeth Whitaker

Michael B. Chesson wrote:
> And don't forget that Dickens married a sister of his late wife; there is an attraction sometimes, for some people, to the sibling of a beloved spouse.
>  
> Michael Chesson
>
>   
>

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