His wife has died 3 years before the beginning of the book.

His wife died many years before him and he had no children.

I just thought he'd cut himself off from the world when his wife died.

His wife died before 1863 at the age of 22.

He was all right until his wife died three years ago.

His wife died in 1825 at the age of 96.

His wife died eight years later on May 21, 1884.

He and his wife both died within a month of each other in 2007.

Six days earlier, his wife had died at the family home in Washington.

His wife died a few years before the book takes place.