“Stephen got up at 4:30 a.m., worked out, and came home to do chores. He had to haul some animals around that morning to get everything ready for our trip. I was working in the next town, roughly a 40-minute drive from our house. My father-in-law called with panic in his voice. I immediately left work and drove as fast as I could. I was crying out, ‘GOD you HAVE TO HEAR me!’ Unfortunately, sometimes God says ‘no.’”
‘Jill!! You need to come home. Stephen isn’t breathing!’ This had to be wrong. I’d just seen him. He was fine.’: Wife loses 26-year-old husband suddenly to 2 undetected heart conditions they were ‘completely unaware he had’
‘Meg it’s not good, Travis has been in a bad accident.’ A wave of heat flushed through my body. I should’ve never left.’: Wife recalls ‘total accident’ that took husband’s life after good Samaritan tried to help in blizzard
“I had gotten a cold and he told me, ‘I need you to take care of yourself sweetheart, I need you for this adventure.’ Shortly after we hung up I sent him a text, which I found out was moments before the accident. I asked him, ‘Do you know how much I love you?’ He never got to read it.”
‘An older gentleman proclaimed, ‘Wow lady, you sure have your hands full.’ My blood started to boil.’: Stranger helps widowed mom gain new perspective on rude comments about her many children
“I wanted to crawl out of my skin. I looked around embarrassed, hoping no one else heard him. This was it—I was going to let him have it. All those years of pretending people’s comments didn’t hurt me were going to come to an end. But then he looked at me with a warm glow, ‘We never could have kids.’”
‘I’m wearing my first wedding rings.’ I braced myself for an angry, jealous response. It was his wedding day, too.’: Widow wears wedding rings to late husband during second wedding, never plans to take them off
“For my wedding last year, I did something atypical. I put on not one, but two sets of wedding rings. In case you think I’m a psycho who is still in love with her first husband, you could be right. I didn’t take them off by choice—I took them off because he died. Three days after my son was born, I became a widow.”
‘I greeted her at the door with tears in my eyes. We couldn’t look past the horror of that day.’: Young widow becomes ‘soul sisters’ with late husband’s cousin after witnessing traumatic death together
“A stray bullet killed my husband 3 days after I delivered our son. His cousin Shelby was holding my baby boy moments before he died. She started sleeping with me that night and over the next year moved into the room with my son and I. For us, this PTSD was life. We couldn’t see past the blood, hear past the screams. Our brains were frozen in time, and the only way for us to climb out, was to be with each other.”
‘I had this overwhelming feeling I was invited out of pity. I blurt out I’m a widow. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she says, horrified.’: Young widow unapologetic for making people uncomfortable, says ‘that is their problem’
“After my husband’s death, I ventured to a kid’s birthday party with my son. I was nervous. As I started mingling with the moms, things got weird. I not-so-casually slid into the conversation that I’m a widow. I was still wearing my rings, so they assumed I was married. This poor woman looked dumbfounded. I kept thinking, ‘Should I have done this differently?’ I cannot pretend my husband didn’t die just to placate people around me.”
‘I gave birth, my life was complete. 3 days later, a stray bullet crashed through our window, striking my husband.’ Widow finds love after loss with old friend, hopes her son knows how ‘truly loved’ he is by ‘both of his dads’
“Our backyard neighbor squeezed the trigger. The bullet traveled over 200 yards to our home, crashed through our back window, and continued across our living room. My postpartum body was weak, but I dragged myself to Justin’s side. Overnight, I became a shell of the person I once was. Later, my friend tried to set me up on a date. ‘Will he think I don’t love Justin anymore?’ We immediately hit it off. ‘Hey Jess,’ he said, ‘It’s so good to see you.’ I hope my son will grow up to be like both of my husbands.”
‘An elderly woman behind us said, ‘he’s beautiful.’ We both responded with a resounding, ‘Thank you!’: Adoptive mom says her son’s 17-year-old birth mother was her ‘saving grace,’ she’ll forever ‘be in awe’ of her
“She was innocently attempting to make sense of us 3. I followed up quickly. ‘I had nothing to do with it,’ I said, winking at the mother of my child. Nicole, his birth mom, responded with her trademark wisdom. ‘I’ll take credit for his good looks,’ she whispered. ‘You can take credit for his smile.’”
‘I was 32 when my husband suddenly died. I wanted to have children with him. Being without him is terrifying.’: Widow finds the ‘beautiful balance of life after loss’ with 2-year-old son
“A counselor I met with looked at me and asked this simple question. ‘Would Albert want you to grieve with fear, or grieve with hope?’ I immediately knew the answer. As I sat there on the couch, tears streaming down my face, I knew I needed to live. Just because Albert died, doesn’t mean I have to as well. That would be the last thing he would want me to do.”
‘Get me off speaker now!’ She hangs up. ‘We have to go, something happened.’ I see ambulances at the river.’: Woman loses husband in boating accident right after micropreemie daughter regains health, family ‘starting to live again’
“We purchased a vacation home at the river where we could bring our daughter. Our plan was to start showing Emma a world outside of hospitals. We planned an entire summer there, living happily ever after. Little did I know life had a different plan. ‘What happened?,’ I ask. Something inside me knew Danny was hurt. ‘Don’t go to the hospital, follow those firetrucks!’”
