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  • About
    • 501c3 Non Profit Mission
    • Our Story
    • Members of Foundation
    • Widows We’ve Helped
    • Our Sponsors & Partners
  • Get Involved
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    • Grant
    • Events & Programs
    • Resources for Widows
    • Community Suggested Resources
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Sue Leathers is an English teacher and mother. She had a huge crush on her husband Todd Kleffman, a journalist, when she was in high school, and she'd save his columns and stories. Decades later, she and Todd found each other through Facebook. He was the love of her life, her high school crush, and she was his biggest fan. She lost Todd in October 2017 to a heart attack. She has found solace in Hope for Widows and in writing of her own journey, and hopes to help other widows by sharing her experiences here.

Sue can be found on Instagram: @susanjanie

Recent Posts by this Author

Author Susan Leathers

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Three years, two months, 12 days

by Susan Leathers in Grief, Hope and Healing, Hope for Widows Foundation, Widowhood Journey
December 29, 2020
Since my husband died, I’ve learned that the word “widow” can be a label, as if being a widow is a static condition. It’s deceptively simple and cloaks the fact that each widow is unique and that widowhood and grief ...
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Of Holidays and a Healing Heart

by Susan Leathers in Grief, Hope and Healing, Hope for Widows Foundation, Widowhood Journey
November 21, 2020
I don’t remember October. I think I wished it away because it is the month in which my love died and because it felt like the unofficial start of the holiday season, which I had been dreading. I didn’t even ...
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You Are More Than a Widow

by Susan Leathers in Grief, Hope and Healing, Hope for Widows Foundation, Widowhood Journey
September 12, 2020
4 months after Todd died, I was talking to a friend who develops websites about starting a blog about my experiences. She was supportive but asked me to consider if I wanted to be defined in the public eye as ...
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National Grief Awareness Day

NATIONAL GRIEF AWARENESS DAY: How we can help each other

by Susan Leathers in Grief, Hope and Healing, Hope for Widows Foundation, Widowhood Journey
August 27, 2020August 29, 2020
National Grief Awareness Day reminds us that each of us who has experienced life-changing loss grieves in valid, non-linear, and unique ways. National Grief Awareness Day serves to bring awareness to a world that often prefers to push away uncomfortable ...
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Exercising the Old Heart Muscle

by Susan Leathers in Hope and Healing, Hope for Widows Foundation, Mental Health, Relationships and Dating, Widowhood Journey
July 23, 2020
How many times have you heard: “You are so strong!”? Or seen memes that compliment a widow’s strength, like this one: “You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have”?  I didn’t realize ...
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To my grown stepchildren this Father’s Day

by Susan Leathers in Solo Parenting
June 20, 2020
I didn’t come into your lives early enough to have a hand in raising you, and at times it probably seemed that I only came to steal away your dad’s heart from you or crowd you out from your seat ...
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Choosing a Headstone

by Susan Leathers in Grief, Hope and Healing, Hope for Widows Foundation
June 13, 2020June 19, 2020
I can’t imagine trying to choose a headstone or a casket in the trauma that comes with death. I have great respect for people who are able to think clearly enough to make those choices. I wasn't ready. In fact, ...
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When the emotional airbag deploys

by Susan Leathers in Coping Mechanisms, Grief
May 25, 2020June 19, 2020
A previous blog described how one of my former students gifted me with a selection of her homemade jams. What I left out of the story was my initial reaction to the package:  I couldn’t open it. I had looked ...
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America, the Grieving

by Susan Leathers in Grief, Hope for Widows Foundation, Mental Health
April 29, 2020June 19, 2020
As I write this, more than 57,000 Americans have died from Covid-19, and the number of Americans grieving for each other grows exponentially. In a country that compartmentalizes death to funeral homes and then largely ignores the entire topic, the ...
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Pay that kindness forward

by Susan Leathers in Coping Mechanisms, Grief, Hope for Widows Foundation, Mental Health
April 21, 2020June 19, 2020
Last week, a former student of mine messaged me from across the country and asked how I was doing. AND, she wanted to send me some of her homemade jam (or marmalade--she’s going to surprise me). How am I doing? ...
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PLEASE NOTE: The information provided by Hope For Widows Foundation on all social media platforms are not to be interpreted as professional advice. None of the Hope for Widows Foundation members are professional therapists or counselors. All interactions are intended for educational and informational purposes only. Hope For Widows Foundation is formed, founded and operated solely in the United States and has no other affiliated chapters outside of the United States.
Address: Forney, Texas 75126
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