Some of you who read here often might know that our Tuesday writer Mike and I are both widowed and in a relationship together. For the past few years, often times we are found to be writing about finding love again after being widowed and what it’s like to be in a new relationship as widowed people – both the good stuff and the hard stuff about it. 

This past week, Mike wrote a goodbye post of sorts, and also a hello post. In this post, he shared that, starting this next week, he will be stepping down from being the Tuesday writer to let someone new step in. 

Instead of leaving the blog though, Mike is joining me on Sundays now, where we will write together.

We’re both excited about this new way of doing things, and I think it could lead to some interesting ways of writing. Some weeks I will write, others he will, and some weeks we’re planning to write together – perhaps sharing our individual reflections on the same topics of grief. Although we are both widowed, I think there are so many differences that make each of our experiences unique. I never got to be married to Drew, while he enjoyed quite a few years of marriage with Megan. Drew died in a sudden accident, while Megan died from a lifelong illness. Even the differences of being a man and a woman create unique experiences of how we each deal with grief. 

I am very much looking forward to this new way of exploring things and sharing. I think that for us personally, it may reveal things to each other about our grief that we might not have previously realized. It might help us to understand each other and our grief on a deeper level, while helping others out there to understand something new too. 

It’s crazy to think, this December, I will have been sharing my words and story here for SIX YEARS. That’s almost the entire span of my life as a widow – which is insane. For me, it is a unique and profoundly symbolic opportunity to now be sharing this day with Mike – just as I have been sharing my life with him now for the past several years. 

There is something so special about this opportunity also coming in the midst of the year that he and I are engaged and planning our wedding next summer. It feels like another symbolic layer being woven in. So what does it mean to be planning your wedding as a widowed person? To someone new? What is that experience like if you were married before? And what is it like if you never got the chance to be married? Well, those are all things we’re living through right at this very moment, and likely all things we’ll be talking about here in the months to come, in our new shared Sundays with you.