'My wife died in our dream home - she hid her illness'

'My wife died in our dream home - she hid her illness'Jon Kortmansky's wife Lori privately battled for yearsCommentsNewsSteven Smith Content Editor08:08, 21 Apr 2026View 3 ImagesLori and Jon in Cape Cod in 2017(Image: Cover Images)Jon Kortmansky was away on business when his wife Lori discovered what would become their dream home. She was instantly smitten and in 2005 made the highest bid they could manage before he had even laid eyes on it.‌"It was a one-bed apartment, but it had these dark wooden floors that were almost black and she just knew 'this is it'," Jon recalls of the apartment on the Upper East Side of New York. An interior designer by trade, Lori threw herself into transforming their home into something truly special, and a decade later the couple purchased the neighbouring apartment, knocked down the dividing wall and created their perfect home.‌"Five months later, we moved into a three-bedroom, three-bath apartment with a 240 square foot balcony. It was just her. Even if she wasn't there, you felt her all around," says Jon, 57.‌Together they built a remarkable life. Thanks to Jon's career as a partner at a law firm, they were fortunate enough to travel extensively and during the winter months hit the slopes almost every weekend.Amid their hectic lives, Lori, Jon's college sweetheart, had kept a heartbreaking secret from everyone except him — she had been fighting brain cancer since her 20s."I met her when I was 18, a week after arriving at Indiana University. She walked by me with a friend, and I said, 'Where are you going?'‌"And she goes, 'I'm going back'. And I said: 'You don't want to do that. You want to talk to me!' And she did." The pair were friends for two years before romance blossomed, and Jon fell head over heels. "She had this smile that would light up a room. She was always happy and always saw the good in people,"...