Add this to the unending list of peeves that plague the widowed: when people refer to our late spouses as exes! Unless you were permanently split up when they passed, these are not our exes. (And for those who were ...
Second Chance When Matt first died my heart was so broken I didn't think I would try to love again. After a year I thought maybe I could but realized I couldn't. But I took the time to heal ...
Widow Brain When I first heard the term “widow brain,” or "widows fog," I just assumed that widow brain was a difficult experience during only the earliest months of grief. As I have read more about the topic, I’ve ...
The Death Certificate looks like our marriage certificate except our union is split, cleaved from me. I’m choiceless. Onset to death 2.5 hours Treatment given from onset to death 2.5 hours Paramedics arrived at 7:03am Pronounced ...
It's THAT time of year again... This is the time when almost everyone I know is utterly befuddled by my seasonal despondency. Everyone is so excited about the loveliness of Fall. Many are just as excited by the impending holidays. ...
The Greatest Gift You Can Give A Widow Sometimes the greatest gift you can give a widow is asking her about her husband. Ask her sincerely. Ask and truly listen. Speak positively, kindly and reassuringly whenever it feels right. ...
Three years If you told me three years ago tonight that Matt would die the day I would have never believed it. But somehow when the officer called to say he passed away I knew that he was gone. My ...
Triggers & Trauma Crisp fall air triggers a wave of nausea. Falling leaves remind me of sitting, shocked and broken watching a group of loved ones entertain my boys with a giant leaf pile in the earliest moments ...
Grief does not have a timeline and no one’s journey is the same. Yet, there comes a time when you begin to see the fog lift. At a counseling session, I was asked what I would say to myself in ...
It's been almost six years since I became widowed, which sometimes seems like millennia and other times, like mere weeks. There are so many things that have happened in our world since then, though, and to be honest, I don't ...