A Grieving Heart: Poems of Love, Loss, and Healing for Widows and Widowers is now available. This book is a compilation of the poetry from the three books of essays and poetry in my Widows Words series plus poetry I’ve written in the years since those books were published. It’s available on Amazon in paperback,…
Tag: grief
A Widows Words, The Later Years now available on Amazon
It’s finished! My latest book, A Widows Words, The Later Years is available in paperback, hardcover, and ebook on Amazon. https://a.co/d/6MSzICQ It’ll also be on Barnes and Noble and the ebook will be for sale on Kobo, soon.
Year Two of My Widow Journey – A Widow’s Words, Year Two Available Soon
Five years ago, I published a book of essays and poetry I wrote during the year after my husband died. The book, A Widow’s Words: Grief, Reflection, Prose, and Poetry is available on Amazon.com. Although seven years have passed in my grief journey, I continue to receive emails from new widows who are reading my…
Videos and Memories – May 2023 Blog on Hope for Widows Website
I came across videos of a trip Rick and I took 14 years ago this month. He knew going to Cornwall to explore the land of my ancestors had been a life-long dream and we spent five glorious days in England. We then met up with my son and his wife to explore several other…
The Pink Pool Noodle – October 2022 Hope for Widows post
The fuchsia-pink pool noodle Rick bought me is starting to decompose around the edges. The memories of that last vacation we shared are starting to fade around the edges, too. How can a pool noodle come to mean so much to me? How does it symbolize our love? Or his personality? Or how much he…
Still Picking Up the Pieces – Latest blog on the Hope for Widows website
Five years ago today, I held Rick’s hand in a death grip. A literal death grip, for hour upon hour. By noon of that day, I realized he was going to die, and he did, at 8pm that night. The night before, alone in my bed, I had an odd feeling. A scary feeling. A…
Three Years Ago Today – Latest blog on the Hope for Widows site
My friend Jo sent me a Facebook memory. Three years ago today, I was with Rick on the Florida gulf. We were sitting with Jo watching a gorgeous sunset in Rick’s favorite spot on Madeira Beach. I sat staring at the photo, unable to remember exactly how I felt that evening. Despite the beauty of…
Seeing the Light – Hope for Widows blog
The overhead lights in the hallway started flickering again a couple of weeks ago. This hasn’t happened in a while, not a long while. When Rick first died, the ceiling lights in the kitchen started to flicker one night. I was washing dishes and could see them flickering out of the corner of my eye,…
Happy Birthday to Me – New Post on the Hope for Widows Blog
So often now, in the midst of happiness, I’ll feel this gloom settle over me. I know right away that it’s not a “random” sadness; it’s definitely Rick-related. I feel those tears just below the surface, a very mild form of the horrible grief I had shortly after losing him, but it builds every day…
First Loves and Last Goodbyes – a Poem
I heard the news, and then I cried A boy I used to love has died We were just teens the night we met No boy had ever kissed me yet So long ago and far away He smiled at me and made my day He held my hand, he kissed my face I followed…









