My Widowhood Story

In 2019, while the two of us were traveling out of state, my husband Larry died of a heart attack and double brain aneurysm.

We weren’t together when it happened. I’d stayed behind in our hotel room while he went out to buy a few things and bring back dinner. It took me some time to figure out that something was wrong because I wasn’t expecting him back at a specific time. It took me even longer to find him because I didn’t know exactly where he had gone. I was alone in a huge city without a vehicle (he had taken the rental car). By the time I finally found Larry and then got to him, he was on life support. His body was still living, but Larry was no longer there.

I went on a business trip with my husband and came home to a life without him.

I remember standing in our living room three weeks after he died and saying out loud “I need help. I don’t know how to do this.”

I connected with a local support group for widowed people. This helped me begin learning how to process and navigate my grief, pain, and new life I did not want or ask for.

In 2020 I began working with an international nonprofit organization that provides support services to widowed women. After struggling greatly to find purpose, meaning, and self identity after my loss, my path forward became clear: I wanted to work with widows and help guide them from merely surviving to thriving, as I too had been guided.

Since 2020 I’ve worked with widows around the globe as a coach, advocate, mentor, grief companion, and support group facilitator.

(And yes, sometimes I do have purple hair. Other times it’s blue, magenta, or my natural grey. It was a huge milestone in my widowhood journey when, after so much loss of identity, I felt ready to outwardly show the new person I was inside.)