Mature Women's Guide is very pleased to feature this thoughtful essay by Joan Stommen "What I Learned in Becoming a Widow". Rooted in painful experience, it will, we hope, be helpful for other women confronted with loss who are searching for ways, despite their grief, to move forward. "Nothing prepares you for having your life interrupted and forever changed," Joan says "but over the last six months I've learned to be a little braver and move a bit more forward as I face life on my own."
"What I Learned in Becoming a Widow". by Joan Stommen
Losing my
husband unexpectedly last summer was like a merry-go-round that suddenly stops!
Our marriage ended when he didn't wake up from his afternoon nap. I've been on
an emotional roller coaster; wandering through financial mazes and unknown
pathways into this world of widowhood.' You cannot start a new chapter unless
you stop re-reading the old one' the saying goes. And yet I cannot put the
story of our Great Adventure down. Over and over I revisit the memories and
what might have been. Nothing prepares you for having your life interrupted and
forever changed, but over the last six months I've learned to be a little
braver and move a bit more forward as I face life on my own.
