I watched the twin nesting boxes for days in April. Cold wind blasted rain against the house windows. Then it snowed. Bluebirds were late. Would they ever come? Years ago, my husband Vic rebuilt a remnant of
Read more →Bereavement and End of Life
“I’ll teach this Tibet class as long as I can,” Vic said after meeting his enthusiastic students for the first class of the semester in 2007. “I love teaching these kids.” Although Vic was a physic’s professor,
Read more →A few months after my husband Vic’s death, I opened the kitchen cabinet to get my vitamins as I did every morning. My eyes drifted to Vic’s medicines on a higher shelf, but I didn’t avert my
Read more →“It’s gone,” I cried out with tears sprinting down my cheeks. Vic was building a fire at the campground where we planned to stay that night. “What’s gone?” he said. “My wedding ring,” I sobbed. “It’s not
Read more →I was at the Hospicare residence to see my sick friend Martha Cohen. She was asleep so I talked with her sister a while. Before leaving, I touched Martha’s hand. She opened her eyes and beamed a smile
Read more →My life is divided into Before—the time between meeting my husband Vic in 1966 and his death in 2008—and After. I am no longer a wife and partner. I am still a mother, although my adult sons
Read more →Artis Henderson didn’t expect to fall in love with a conservative, church-going soldier training for war in Iraq. As she writes in her elegant and poetic memoir Un-Remarried Widow, “there was danger lurking in the sweetest days.”
Read more →“I miss Dad,” I told Mom after my father died when I was 14. “I don’t know what to do.” “I can’t talk about it,” Mom said. “I have to go to work. I don’t want to
Read more →On March 7, 2008 when you turned 67, cancer was winning. We feared it would be your last birthday. At dawn, I heard muffled banging of wood against metal as you loaded the wood stove. Upstairs, I
Read more →1. Pray or meditate—in your own way or according to your spiritual or religious tradition. Consider spending part of each day in silence rather than seeking constant distraction. Meditation and prayer comfort us. In silence, we honor
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