widow
Hold a Candle for a Grieving Loved One
Family & friends can be your light in the darkness of grief.
By Kathryn Haugen
It has now been six months since I lost my beloved husband, Paul, after almost 38 years together. I am totally shocked that he is gone and still feel like he will walk through the door at any moment.
My emotions are all over the place. I can talk to people about what happened in a calm manner and then crack up looking at Paul’s shoes. Although I am still in the midst of an emotional roller coaster, I can also see that I… Continue reading
Open Your Eyes To Grief Support, It Can Be Anywhere
By opening our eyes and our heart to grief support, it often comes to us in way we never imagined. I hear this all the time from readers of this blog and it has happened to me personally. Below is a story from Diane Dettmann who share her personal experience. I hope it will inspire you! – JoAnne
OPENING MY EYES TO SUPPORT by Diane Dettmann
In 2000 when my fifty-three year old husband died suddenly, finding meaning in life again seemed like an impossible task. Never able to have children, we spent our twenty-eight years of… Continue reading
Lessons of Loss – Moving in a New Direction
By: Cindy Adams
Cindy Adams, LMSW
Life in my young thirties was wonderful. I was working in the school system when my youngest daughter started kindergarten. I was a happy wife and a joyful mother. Life couldn’t get better. My husband was a wonderful spouse and father. We had the American dream of having two children, a dog, living in a single family home with a fenced in backyard and swimming pool. We had fantastic neighbors and friends, and a good church family. What more could I ask for?
So what did I do when my life fell apart? My… Continue reading
Grieving Changes – Breast Cancer & Widows
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and I bet everyone reading this has been touched by this insidious disease, either personally or through a friend or relative. Breast cancer is one of those few cancers that can leave a woman disfigured, leaving her often grieving how her body used to look and how she used to feel as a woman.
She grieves in many of the same ways as I have as a widow. I grieved for a life I used to have and was forced to find a new normal, so does she.
A woman with breast cancer often… Continue reading
The Bond of Widowhood
I had the privilege of attending the first National Conference on Widowhood sponsored by the Soaring Spirits Loss Foundation.
The objective of the conference was to “celebrate how far we have come, to be inspired to truly live the life we have ahead of us, and to discover ways of honoring the past while rebuilding our future.” as described by Michele Neff Hernandez, Executive Director of Soaring Spirits Loss Foundation.
There were about 200 attendees from 28 states and 6 different countries all sharing this bond of widowhood. This is a bond, a group none of us ever wanted… Continue reading