The other night I was watching 911 Lonestar we are catching up on old seasons when they showed one of the characters losing her husband unexpectedly. She calls 911 tells them what happened ask them not to turn on the sirens because she doesn’t want to wake her kids. The next morning she doesn’t tell them and sends them to school.
She tells no one what is going on that is close to her. Searching for answers she goes to the hospital to inquire about the autopsy runs into a coworker and doesn’t say anything. It was hard to watch. But I could feel the emotions and almost want to thank the writers.
My boyfriend went to the hospital on Wednesday and normally that would put me into a trauma response. But instead I was able to stay in the moment. Not go down the path of that night.
Not remembering being told. Then the text and calls of the days that followed. I wish I could have been like the character on TV that just kept it to myself for twenty four hours.
It would have been nice to just sit with the news alone. But loss doesn’t work that way we have to feel it. We have to tell people. Talking about helps to heal us.
It has been almost three years and there are days that still hit hard but for the most part I am better. I am lucky to have a person in my life that understands my grief and supports my bad days. And when I talk about Matt he understands it.
Shutting down is the easier some days and I did that for awhile. But learning to share the burden of grief was a lesson I needed to learn.
About Laurel Snook
Laurel became a young widow on October 2, 2020, her husband Matt had a heart attack he was only 37. Matt was a juvenile diabetic and they always knew he would die young but she never thought that she could be a widow at 32. Navigating grief with anxiety, regrets and guilt have been a struggle for Laurel. They had gotten into a fight days before he died and they had talked about divorce. One of the things that helped her the most is finding other widows who understood the pain she was feeling. In February she decided to start writing her story. Self-care is something else she started to do daily and art has become her outlet to get what she is feeling out which she shares on her Instagram. Being a young widow comes with its own challenges but we are not alone in this journey.
You can find her on Instagram @HealingPorcupine or her personal blog link- Healingporcupine.com.
Thank you for this. This speaks so much to me. I could not think or function when my husband suddenly pass in April of this year – he was 57 and I am 42. I forgot to tell my neighbors, who were good friends, so that they could be at the funeral or come by to support. There were others who I had to reach out to right away. Right now I have my sister who is also a widow and a good friend who I can rely on to help me through the bad, sad or no talking days. I hope that you have more good days than bad. Thank you for what you write. I read every one and it has brought a lot of help, hope and healing to me.