As another year draws to a close, I can’t help but reflect on the brevity of a year and ponder what this year means for me. What lessons did I learn this year? How much did I accomplish? Have I ...
It is the happiest time of the year or at least that is what we are told. But for some, this time of the year comes with sadness and grief. It is not that we are not happy to celebrate ...
Joy is hard to come by when we are trapped in the grief of losing our husbands. In fact, joy is something we might feel like we may never know again after such a devastating loss. Many people define joy ...
We’re all looking for the best way to handle our grief, especially at those trigger heavy times when holidays, special days, and anniversaries come. On Tuesday it will be what should have been our 41st wedding anniversary. It’s right smack ...
For a couple years after my husband died, grief completely overtook my life. I was in a pain-filled fog. I thought about him around the clock. There were memories of his loss everywhere - in my home, my life, my ...
This is the time of year when we start hearing a lot about what we're thankful for. I love turning the focus of the upcoming holidays to something that celebrates gratitude for many reasons, one of which is the fact ...
Traditions and routines bring us connection to the past and give us a sense of predictability. We find comfort in the details, rituals, and traditions that form our history and situate us in our families. We feel stable and like ...
There was a time that doesn't seem all that far back when I wasn't a widow. No matter the strife, nothing changed the fact that my husband was my husband, and I was his wife. We did all that husband-and-wife ...
Even the mended pieces of a widow’s broken heart can wince at the dawn of a new Christmas season. The first year is the hardest, but each passing year somehow accentuates the permanence of the absence of his physical presence. ...
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 ...