chapter 2

The Heartbreak of a New Beginning – Hope for Widows Blog

…It’s an elusive feeling this time. The grief. The heartbreak. This makes it all final. Rick is gone and he’s never coming back. Another man is holding my hand, telling me he’s crazy about me, kissing me, “smitten” with me. And it’s one of the most bittersweet things I’ve encountered on this long, complicated grief journey.

I guess it’s time to revisit the Hope for Widows blogs that I skipped before, the ones that were written by widows who found their “chapter twos.” I had no reason to read them. In fact, looking back, I think it actually made me uncomfortable to ponder the idea that I would ever find a man who would hold my interest. I finally embraced the idea of dating, but didn’t ever truly envision more than that. It’s time to read the accounts of other widows who’ve gone this way before. To see that I’m not alone in what I’m feeling….

Read the blog on the Hope for Widows website.

About the author

Katherine Billings Palmer is a technical writer, poet, and essayist from Garden City, Michigan. She’s won several academic writing awards, including first place in the University of Michigan Dearborn Critical Essay Contest for her work about poet John Donne: “‘The Sun Rising’: A Lover’s Boast.”

In 2017, Katherine’s husband, Rick, died of complications from small cell lung cancer. She wrote a series of poems and essays about her struggles to cope with her grief. I Wanted to Grow Old With You is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions.

Her latest book, A Widow’s Words: Grief, Reflection, Prose, and Poetry – The First Year was published in January 2019 and is also available on Amazon.com.

Katherine is a guest blogger for the Hope for Widows Foundation and writes about her grief journey at www.TheWritingWidow.com.

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