• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Widow's Voice

Widow's Voice

  • Soaring Spirits
  • Donate
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Categories
  • Authors
    • Kelley Lynn
    • Emily Vielhauer
    • Emma Pearson
    • Kathie Neff
    • Gary Ravitz
    • Victoria Helmly
    • Lisa Begin-Kruysman

The Widow Word

Posted on: March 28, 2016 | Posted by: Michele Neff Hernandez

http://widowsvoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/10984058_925824254103825_4262280160418005868_n.jpg

 

 

Over the years, I’ve been asked many times what I think of the word widow, and specifically if I’d prefer we use a different word that has a more positive connotation to label the widowed experience.

When the word widow first applied to me, I told myself that I hated that word. I shuddered every time I used that word to describe myself, and the unwanted situation in which I found myself. I avoided saying the word “widow” if I could, and certainly did not use that word to publicly describe myself.

But here is the thing, I have been widowed. My husband died, and the word “widow” IS going to be applied to me whether I like it or not. Eventually I realized that hating the word (and the experience by extension) didn’t change anything, in fact, for me, hating the word made it more difficult to bear. I felt as if hating the word widow meant hating a part of me that I could not change.

Instead of changing the word people use to describe a person whose spouse or partner has died, I seek to change the negative connotation that is applied to the word widow.

The widowed people I have met over the past nine years are remarkable. They are resilient, powerful, broken, rebuilt, struggling, growing, generous, and many are more alive than any other group of people I have ever encountered.

I don’t want to change the word widow. I believe that the connotation around the word is a result of the fear our society has of death, grief, illness, and all things that can’t be “fixed.” Whatever we call ourselves, we will always have to find our way to own our re-born selves, and to handle other people’s discomfort with our grief process and/or our choices post-loss. That said, I am all for whatever change of language or perspective each of us needs to walk this widowed road; to each his or her own.

Widow is a powerful word, and I am proud to be known as someone who loved my person to his very last breath. Cheers to all who have been a part of the conversation…be true to you.

Categories: Uncategorized

Primary Sidebar

Footer

Quick Links

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Categories
  • Authors

SSI Network

  • Soaring Spirits International
  • Camp Widow
  • Resilience Center
  • Soaring Spirits Gala
  • Widowed Village
  • Widowed Pen Pal Program
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

Contact Info

Soaring Spirits International
2828 Cochran St. #194
Simi Valley, CA 93065

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 877-671-4071

Soaring Spirits International is a 501(c)3 Corporation EIN#: 38-3787893. Soaring Spirits International provides resources with no endorsement implied.

Copyright © 2023 Widow's Voice. All Rights Reserved.