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  • About
    • Mission, Vision & Values
    • Our Story
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  • Get Involved
  • Resources
    • Grant
    • Grant Recipients
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  • Blog
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Joyce was born and raised in Oklahoma and is the youngest of sixteen children. She has worked in the education and nonprofit industries for more than 15 years. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Organizational Leadership.

In the summer of 1983, at the age of sixteen, Joyce met her husband and soulmate Frank and soon after started a family. They were married for over 38 wonderful and adventurous years.

Joyce is a mother to two adult sons, a grandmother to a feisty Leo granddaughter, and a transplant wife and widow after Frank passed away due to COVID-19 complications on August 25, 2021 after receiving a kidney transplant four years earlier. He died exactly one week before her birthday.

Joyce's writings on grief, love, loss, and the beautiful mess in between are an intimate look at life without her husband Frank and how his unexpected and untimely death showed her that nothing in this world lasts forever, even true love, and that life can change in one tragic instant.

You can read more of Joyce’s writings about her beloved Frank on Instagram @tofrankwithlove

Recent Posts by this Author

Author Joyce Hishaw-Willis

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Grief Makes You Do Crazy Things

by Joyce Hishaw-Willis in Grief, Mental Health, Widowhood Journey
December 3, 2023
Whoever said “it gets easier with time” lied their asses off. They were either delusional or just downright bat shit crazy. Apparently, they never experienced the death of someone they loved with every fiber of their being because there’s no ...
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Husband In A Box

by Joyce Hishaw-Willis in Grief, Widowhood Journey
September 9, 2023
Aside from going to the hospital to say goodbye to my husband for the very last time, picking up his death certificates and ashes from the funeral home is probably one of the weirdest, most surreal experiences I have ever ...
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Grief By The Numbers: A Timeline

by Joyce Hishaw-Willis in Coping Mechanisms, Grief, Widowhood Journey
June 21, 2023
It’s funny what you remember after a loved one dies. All the little details get stored in your brain like one big flash drive of memories just waiting to be downloaded at a moment’s notice. But nothing jogs the memory ...
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The Cruelty Is The Point

by Joyce Hishaw-Willis in Grief, Relationships and Dating, Widowhood Journey
May 14, 2023
I thought everything was fine, until it wasn’t. Shortly after my husband passed away nearly two years ago, I realized that envy from family members is a very real thing, and the depth of that envy is more than I ...
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Grief Made Me Fearless

by Joyce Hishaw-Willis in Coping Mechanisms, Grief, Hope and Healing, Widowhood Journey
April 18, 2023
I’ve always been a scaredy-cat when it comes to just about everything. Swimming. Getting my ears pierced. Dogs. Smoking weed. Public speaking. Dancing in front of people. Getting a tattoo. And on and on. But when I experienced the worst ...
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Widowed Or Single? That Is The Question

by Joyce Hishaw-Willis in Grief, Hope and Healing, Relationships and Dating, Solo Parenting, Widowhood Journey
March 5, 2023
Widowed Single I just completed my taxes this year, and I cried (again!, because I did the same thing last year) when I had to check the “Single” box. There is a reason that we always check off “Widowed” on ...
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The Two Sides of Guilt

by Joyce Hishaw-Willis in Grief, Hope and Healing, Widowhood Journey
January 14, 2023
I consider August 25, 2021 the single darkest day of my life. The news from the hospital that my beloved husband of over 38 years had succumbed to the deadly virus known as Covid-19 was devastating, a crushing, visceral blow, ...
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It’s The Intimacy For Me

by Joyce Hishaw-Willis in Grief, Relationships and Dating, Widowhood Journey
December 13, 2022
Intimacy is what I miss most when I think about my husband Frank. All the ways two people are intimate with each other doesn’t always involve sex. It’s the little things that make up a life together. It’s the little ...
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38 Things That Made All The Difference

by Joyce Hishaw-Willis in Grief, Relationships and Dating, Widowhood Journey
November 13, 2022November 13, 2022
“You look like shit.” That’s what my oldest brother said to me as I got in the car one morning. It was the summer of 1983, and I was a junior in high school. As part of our morning routine, ...
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The Loneliness Monster

by Joyce Hishaw-Willis in Coping Mechanisms, Grief, Widowhood Journey
October 9, 2022
Remember the Loch Ness Monster? The mysterious creature with the long neck protruding up out of the water? No one ever actually saw the monster and it was discovered that the grainy, black and white photograph of it was a ...
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