Once again, it’s the worst week of the year and I’m trying to make the best of it. My husband died on August 13, 2017. His birthday is August 23rd. The year he died, those 10 days were a fog ...
Making decisions as a widow is exhausting. Already, our emotional stores are spent, and we are physically exhausted from poor sleep. Some decisions are practical ones like checking a bank balance before paying a bill or choosing Raisin Bran over ...
The last thing I was looking forward to was re-entering the dating scene after 20+ years as a married woman. In fact, something Rick used to say came to mind: “I’d rather poke hot needles in my eyes.” And that’s ...
Rick and I were married on July 12, 1997. He died one month after our twentieth anniversary. This Friday will mark the second time I’ve spent our anniversary alone. In a way, it’s almost the third time, because on our ...
I’ve been having issues with impatience lately. I mean, I’ve always been one to want something done ASAP. In my late teens, I remember painting my parents’ living room in one day. The room had needed a new coat of ...
I catch myself talking out loud a lot when I’m alone in the car. Luckily, nowadays, the passengers in the cars around me assume I’m on a hands-free phone, so it doesn’t seem strange to see me alone gabbing away ...
For the past few months, life has been pretty good. I have my vision board in place, and lots of activities and plans and dreams for my future that keep me occupied. I’ve been writing up a storm, and was ...
I woke up today realizing I feel more alone now than I ever have in my life. And it’s not just that I’m living alone for the first time - no parents, no child: totally alone in this quiet house. ...
Guilt. It is that awful feeling that creeps up in dark moments – shows up unannounced, and with no true purpose, other than to torture with a million different “what ifs”. It has a sneaky way of allowing self-doubt to ...
Lots of people use writing to help them process their grief. I would bet that every Hope Sister committed to blogging for the Hope for Widows Foundation would admit that the blogging experience helps her process what happened to her ...