“Please take the risk, eat the cake, do the thing. Please start the business, grow your family, follow your heart. We didn’t want it to come. But it still came. And then it came again. And it had no mercy.”
‘I’ve lived a good life. You’ve given me everything.’ We didn’t see it coming.’: After losing husband to cancer, woman urges ‘pull your loved ones close’
‘He stuttered, ‘I’m so sorry I didn’t call. I lost your number. You are so pretty.’ I had no idea this man would change my life, let alone have 7 years left on this earth.’: Woman shares emotional journey finding love after losing partner to brain aneurysm
“He left in May for his third deployment. We walked him onto the ship. It was odd, our son Matthew did not want to leave him, and I just felt like we needed to keep saying goodbye. Days later, he called me from his phone and we said I love you. That was the last time I ever heard his voice.”
‘I set the box of ashes on the couch. She gathered her blanket close, the first time she’d sit next to her Daddy without weeping.’: Widow shares heartfelt moment with daughter after losing husband
“I go to my bedroom and pick up the box. My heart immediately recognizes its weight. My hands know every edge and corner of this container that holds all that’s physically left of the man I thought I’d grow old with.”
‘I never thought the virus would get to us. We were too safe, too smart.’: Young widow candidly details grief journey after losing husband to Covid-19
“Days before my husband contracted Covid, I remember saying out loud to him how excited I was for everything to shut down; I couldn’t wait to have him to ourselves. How naïve was I? He’d be sick less than a week later, and gone a month after that.”
‘Just 10 months after our divorce was finalized, AJ took his own life.’: Divorced widow navigates grief with rare identity
“Was I a widow? Or was I just the ex-wife? I was still the mother of his child, but we weren’t in an active relationship at this time of his death. What and who did this make me? I’d lost the man I loved, but I wasn’t granted extended bereavement time off work. There was no GoFundMe pages created to help with the unexpected funeral costs. His sudden death had me questioning everything, including my identity.”
‘I’m never going to be who I was before he died. Nor do I want to. And that’s OKAY.’: Woman shares recovery story after grieving husband’s death, ‘I know he’s happy for us’
“Someone told me I’d grieve FOREVER, so that’s what I believed.”
‘Who’s going to love me now?’ Tears slid down his face, and I knew he wouldn’t want to live with the scars.’: Young widow shares grief journey after losing husband in tragic accident
“There was a flash of light, screams. My reality became a blur. Everything I had ever imagined for myself was gone.”
‘What? We had a twin?!’ I had two eggs. One my healthy twin, the other forming into cancer.’: Brave mom survives rare choriocarcinoma, now advocates for others
“I was told I had a heavy period, I was pregnant, or I was miscarrying, none of which were true. By this time I felt a huge ball, almost like a crowning baby. I came to realize if I did not get help quickly, I was going to bleed to death.”
‘She is SUPERWOMAN. But she CAN’T do it alone.’: Widow urges ‘reach out to a single parent today’
“She can grocery shop, clean, and feed 5 bodies regularly. She can work out, read her scriptures, and say her prayers daily. You might have seen her do all these things at one point or another, but, I promise you, she can’t do it ALL.”
‘Laundry doesn’t care if someone dies or not.’ In a world where ‘busy’ is a success, grieving people get a hall pass.’: Mom, widow urges ‘time truly is all we have’
“The truth is, grief changes you. I live with urgency because I know what it’s like to have everything I hoped for taken in an instant.”
