INTERNATIONAL WIDOWS DAY

Let us be upfront, neither of us are widows, so we have not had that experience to call on but we have both counselled many widows  during our time working in a hospice bereavement care team.  A widow  commented on Twitter yesterday that "widows and widowers are some of the bravest people I know".   

When you have been in a deeply loving, stable relationship for maybe years, even decades, to lose your partner/husband is a bitter  blow.  It is really hard to move forward in life without the person you love.  It takes strength to forge a life alone.  Many widows would say that they  had no choice, they had to do it and this is true, but it does not make it easier.  Perhaps in the end, love carries you through the difficult times, the sadness, the yearning and the loss until your grief becomes less raw.  We do know that the love never dies, it is carried forward into a new life without the person you love but hopefully over an undefined period of time that raw grief quietens somewhat, and eventually you live with the grief in a different way.

We hope our book helps any widows or widowers who need some extra support and understanding about grief and we were thinking of you yesterday especially.