I thought you could only get one or the other. You can take the higher one. I'm not familiar with widows benefits, only that if you remarry you lose them I think. I know that because I had remarried, I was no longer entitled to my ex's SS and not when he died either. But, if I hadn't remarried I would have been able to get them. As for the second marriage, I can collect half of my husband's or my own, which ever is higher. Take a look at the website Chatty. There are a lot of new rules and things we didn't know about until my husband was nearing retirement and we started looking into it.

Louisa