Just For Widows

Dear Widowed Friend,

Losing a husband impacts so many areas of your life.  You never wanted to be on this journey.  It can be a time of shock, anxiety, confusion, overwhelming sadness, and excruciating pain.  Pain that is truly indescribable and unimaginable until you have experienced it.  Pain isn’t even a strong enough word.  Anguish might be better, but that’s not enough either.

There are so many questions and causes for concern.

What do you do now?  

What does the future look like?  

How will you get by? 

Will you ever be okay again? 

How will you go on? 

Who are you now?

What if we told you that the end of your husband’s life does not need to be the end of your life?  That you could actually experience a rich life while remembering him well.  

You may want to swear at us – thinking this is impossible and that we don’t understand your pain!  

But we do! 

We have worked with many brokenhearted widows like you and were there ourselves. We have experienced it and seen in our clients that you can have joy, and hope, and live again—in time and with active healing steps.

You will be different.  Your life will be different.  But it can still be good.  This doesn’t happen overnight.  It doesn’t happen in a few months or even a year.  But it is possible!

If you are newly widowed, we don’t expect you to begin to understand this.  Right now, you are probably just barely surviving, and the goal is to get you through one minute at a time, a day at a time.  

My friend, this is not a journey to do alone.  We hope the content we have created for you will offer you some support and solace.  We remember what it is like.  

For now, we want to leave you with hope.  Because we promise you – there is hope, even if you can’t feel it yet.  We will hope for you!  You can borrow hope from us. 

Dear Widow Sister!

 Your whole world changed overnight, didn’t it?  Your world has stopped while everyone else’s goes on.  I know.  I’ve been there.  Look at my face in this picture.  Can you see my pain and grief?  Can you relate?                    

When my husband suddenly died of a brain aneurysm, I remember watching everyone around me and thinking, “How can you go on like life is normal?  It’s not!! A bomb has gone off in my life and affected everything.  Don’t you see?  I was stunned by grief!

Losing any close loved one is devastating but losing a husband tends to impact every area of your life because our lives are so intertwined. It’s scary, confusing, and devastating – and so lonely. 

You may doubt that you could ever recover or be okay again.  I did.  You may lose your zest for living and not want to go on.  I didn’t want to take my life, but if a bus hit me on the way home from work, I was just fine with that.  If you are suicidal, that is different.  Please seek help right away!

Ron explains that navigating widowhood is like coming home to a pitch-black house. The lights don’t work, and someone has moved all the furniture around. You know the house and where things should be, but you are stumbling around because things have changed. Widows can feel lost in their own lives. Things are familiar but different at the same time.  It’s very confusing and often scary.

A widow can lose her confidence and identity while feeling excruciating emotional and sometimes physical pain that goes deeper than she could have ever imagined.  It is a pain you can’t honestly understand until you have been through it.  It’s unbelievable and often unbearable. 

 Please don’t give up.  Below is a video I did on the 7th anniversary of my husband’s death.  I was no longer the person pictured above when I had no hope and didn’t think I would ever be okay. 

 From one widow to another, I am sending you a huge hug.  Please hang in there.  Don’t give up.  And take your time.  This is your journey, in your way and in your time.  Be gracious to yourself, dear friend.

 Warmly,

Depending on where you are in your grief journey and how long it has been since your husband died, different content on our site will pertain to you.  Please get what you can now, and don’t worry if you aren’t ready for some topics yet.  Skip them. They may be of interest to you later.

WHEN YOU ARE READY, THERE IS MUCH WE CAN DO TO HELP YOU HEAL.

Our greatest joy and honor is guiding heartbroken widows through a journey towards healing and hope.  What we do is not for early on your grief.  You are numb, in shock, and just trying to survive.  

As time passes, you will regain some of your footing and be ready to work on some active healing steps.  That’s what our widow retreats in California are all about.  We work with only four widows and people from all over the world have come to a sacred space to process their grief and be cared for while with other women who understand.  

It is a beautiful experience when the time is right.  We offer clarity calls to confirm whether our retreat would fit you well and if it is the right time.  The retreat must be at least six months after the date you lost your husband.  

You can get more retreat information here

The Next Chapter Widow Retreat

A one-of-a-kind journey of hope and healing for only 4 widows!

Orange, California

Sign up for a clarity call with Anne-Marie here

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