If no exceptions are filed and sustained to such report of the commissioners setting apart exemptions and it is determined that the property set apart was all the property owned by the absentee spouse at the time he or she left and that he or she left less property than was exempt to a surviving spouse and minor children of decedents, the title to the property so set aside, whether real or personal, shall vest for the life of the deserted spouse or the minority of the children, whichever may last terminate.
Ala. Code § 6-10-107 (1975)