A GRIEVING widow has married a cow after it kissed her just like her late husband used to.
Khim Hang, 76, who lives in the Kratie province of Cambodia, was struck by the similarities between the cow and her dead spouse.
The first time she met the animal, Ms Hang said it licked her hair and neck, gave her a kiss, then followed her upstairs.
It was exactly what her husband – who died the year prior – might have done and she became convinced she was encountering his reincarnation.
Ms Hang told Reuters: “I believe that the calf is my husband because whatever he does… is in exactly the same way as my husband did when he was alive.”
The unlikely pair married a short time later, according to neighbours.
Bizarre footage showed the woman lead the cow to her one-storied house before giving it a bath and preparing it for bed – with pillows previously used by her late husband Tol Khut.
Ms Hang’s son said he could “sense his father’s spirit within the animal” and made sure it never wandered too far from their home.
The woman has forbidden her children from selling or maltreating the cow after she dies, ordering them to instead take care of their “father” until the animal passes away.
Even in death, she wants them to treat it with the respect they would a human and hold a traditional funeral.
Ms Hang is not the first person to marry a cow; a teenager from a coastal village in Indonesia was reportedly forced to wed one in 2010.
Villagers organised a wedding ceremony between Ngurah Alit, 18, and the cow when the former was found fornicating with the animal.
A divorced woman married her pet dog Sheba in Split, Croatia in 2021 in a special service attended by 200 well-wishers.
Amanda Rodgers, from Brixton, London, even got down on one leg for the proposal.
She explained: “Sheba had been in my life for years, making me laugh and comforting me when I was feeling low.
“I couldn’t think of anything more I’d need from a life partner.
“I got down on one knee and proposed.
“I could tell by her tail wagging that she said, ‘yes’.”
The woman claimed she and her dog were “meant to be” and, although the wedding wasn’t real in the legal sense, “it was a nice way to mark what Sheba means to me”.
