As my birthday approaches next week so does the day that I met Erik. I met him the day after my 21st birthday. I always told him getting to meet him was my late, but amazing life-changing birthday gift. Although, I did think my birthday was on the 28th of August for 13 years of […]
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Growing Up
Last week my kids started back at school. Building up to it, I didn’t feel overly anxious about Tony missing this milestone yet again. However, I didn’t have time to really process that part of it. This year (and next) my boys will attend three different schools. So that is triple the number of back-to-school […]
The Friends We Meet through Loss
Today I’m attending an outdoor ceremony and gathering to unveil a park bench that will bear the name Tim O’Brien on it, in his honor and memory. Tim died from a sudden heart attack on November 20, 2021. He was 50 yrs old and he was doing something he loved when he died – running. […]
Getting Meta-physical
It’s been four weeks since I’ve returned from Camp Widow in San Diego, however, the experience of that conference still resonates and inspires. It was enlightening to cross paths with nearly 600 individuals who’ve lost their spouses, or significant others; I gained knowledge, insight and growth from presenting my Writing Work Shop which only accounted […]
ChatGPT + grief
So, I had this weird idea to talk to ChatGPT about my grief. I have read a few articles about how people have used AI to hear a loved one’s voice again, and that made me feel really conflicted. And, I always think about how much Boris would love ChatGPT and would use it all […]
Music Has the Power
I feel my age every time I hear that another of my favored movie stars, television personalities or musicians has passed, but most of all I feel my age whenever the announcement concerns one of the long-haired musicians who were my contemporaries. In a span of less than two years, it’s goodbye to Robbie Robertson, […]
Healing Support Tools:
A Simple Dinner Party for Widowed Folk The clutter of food leftovers waiting for containers is evidence of an evening’s gift of food, conversation, kindness, and even laughter! Welcome to the Soaring Spirits Regional Social Group experience! For the first two years of widowhood my inbox featured a regular invitation to join with other widowed […]
When Reality Hits
What a rollercoaster of a week it has been. Last Friday was both Erik’s and the twins’ birthdays. I used to love this day. How special it was that they shared a birthday with their father. How special Erik felt that he got his legacies as a birthday gift. Now I am conflicted about this […]
No.
Yesterday I had a video call with some of the widows that I’ve met at Camp over the last few years. We usually keep in touch via text, but it was great to look at their faces instead of the text bubbles. Recently, one of us had solicited advice on how to handle a situation. […]
The Good Wife
There are a lot of weird thoughts that come into my head on the regular, as a person who has now been widowed for over a decade. The widowed mind is strange. Or maybe MY mind is just strange. I don’t know. What I DO know is my brain makes me laugh sometimes, and other […]
“Winding” My Own Business
It is hard for me to grasp that next month marks one year that I’ve posted here at The Widow’s Voice. Each one of the “Blogging Seven” – one writer for each day of the week – offers a personal account that has evolved around the circumstances that brought them (okay us) to the […]
Kinless
Lee’s death is a seminal event in my life. Her death can still trigger profound grief, yet I am simultaneously full of gratitude for our life together, which is preserved in happy memory. Without her, I deal daily with the reality that I am now over seventy years old and without a wife, or kids, […]