"It gets better." Let me begin this post with an honest disclaimer: I never thought I would ever say those words. How does the death of a spouse ever get better? I never would have believed it either. I never ...
Grief and trauma have a petrifying effect on the human body. I remember clearly in my first year of widowhood how difficult it was to just move. If I was on the floor, moving to the chair felt impossible. I ...
In my last post I wrote about the value of holiday planning and how the choices I made (and didn’t make) affected the outcome of the holidays. Since that first year, I have tried so hard to push through avoiding ...
Last year I worked at an elementary school as a paraeducator to see if I wanted to go into teaching. By the end of the school year, I was happy with everything I had learned that brought me closer to ...
There is a man that loves me unconditionally…and he isn’t my husband. There is a man that adores my son…and he isn’t his biological father. There is a man that holds our hand without hesitation through the good, bad, ...
Things don’t bother me as much as they used to. I used to be a lot more tense than I am now, more anxious about everything that needed to be done. I often woke up in the morning with a ...
When was the last time you laughed? Like really laughed, the kind of laughter that has you doubled over, with tears coming out of your eyes or until you had to pee – when was the last time you really ...
Forrest Gump's mother was certainly wise with her iconic life lesson "Life is like a box of chocolates you never know what you are going to get" I have found that the grief process has been exactly like a ...
Giving birth was my first true injection of empowerment as an adult. When my oldest was born, I waddled into that hospital at 25 still very much a child. A few days later, I walked out a woman. With each ...
On the 2 Year anniversary of my husband's passing, I can say with absolute certainty that Year 2 was no better or easier or less painful than Year 1. It was excruciatingly difficult and so, so lonely. But, as widows, ...