For his first Valentine’s Day without his best friend and wife Aida Audia, recent widower Jeff Topal talks about his relationship with “the love of my life”: how they met, what they built and shared in health and through Aida’s illness, and what made their 45-year marriage so special. This conversation grew out of an exchange that first took place at a 2025 St. Louis Public Radio listening session in Collinsville, Illinois.
St. Louis on the Air