The question to be resolved then is simply whether the testator, having made provision for his wife to the extent which I have described, fulfilled his duty to provide proper maintenance and support for her for the rest of her life. The factors to be taken into account are set out in the second paragraph of the quotation I have given from the judgment of Duff J. in Walker v. McDermott. The testator should have taken into account the situation of his wife. As to this, I make two observations. The petitioner had virtually no assets of her own. She was 57 years old at the date of her husband's death; it would have been unreasonable on the part of the testator, in my view, to proceed on the assumption that she should be required to go to work and earn her own living. There is nothing in the evidence to indicate that the petitioner was in poor health; the testator, proceeding judiciously, would, in my view, proceed on the common knowledge that ladies such as his wife often live to a great age, and ensure that she would be provided for on the footing that she might well live into her nineties.
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