Richard E. Grant and Joan Washington.Photo: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty

Richard E. Grantis remembering hislate wife Joan Washingtonon what would have been her 73rd birthday.
On Tuesday, Grant, 65, shared a photo of Washington on Twitter that the actor wrote wastaken on her last birthdaybefore she died.
“Taken on her last ever birthday, 21st December - my beloved late wife Joan,” the actor wrote on Twitter. “Her bravery, fortitude, resistance and acceptance of her diagnosis, are an inexhaustible inspiration.”
“I miss her more than is measurable,” Grant added in the Twitter post, along with four emoji hearts.
Grant originally announced Washington Joan haddied at 71 after 35 years of marriagein September 2021 in a social media statement.
At the time, Grant shared asweet videoof himself dancing with his love, which ended with the pair hugging in a warm embrace.
“🎵ONLY YOU!🎵Joan - Love of my Life & Giver of Life to our daughter Olivia,” Grant wrote on Twitter at the time.
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TheStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalkeractor also shared that writing the book “was like resurrecting my wife, because I went through all the stuff of how we met and all the good things that happened to us [over] almost 40 years together, career and personal.”
“So that was amazingly helpful,” he added.
Joan Washington and Richard E. Grant.Karwai Tang/Getty

Grant said that his late wife’s advice to him and Olivia “gave [them] permission to be happy,” even though it was difficult.
But a year later, when Grant looks back at photos of Washington, “I see her in her prime, when she was well, rather than what thecancerdid to her,” he said.
“It’s a trick of what the brain does, and what your memory does, to help you survive,” Grant added.
source: people.com