Life has been less than a jolly holiday for the star of the movie classics Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music since the death of her husband, director Blake Edwards.

"I think every day it's a struggle right now," says Julie Andrews, Edwards' soul mate for 41 years. Edwards (Breakfast at Tiffany's) died from complications of pneumonia in December. He was 88; Andrews is 75. The two were married and worked together for most of the British actress' five decades in Hollywood.

They first teamed for a big-budget dud, the 1970 musical flop, Darling Lili. Eventually, though, Edwards and Andrews would deliver big-screen successes: the 1979 box-office smash 10, the biting 1981 Hollywood satire S.O.B. and their Oscar-nominated 1982 musical Victor/Victoria - which Andrews called some of the best work in her career. There was also That's Life, which the couple made in 1986, "which was such a joy," she says.