Featured Blog Posts (12)

Michelle has asked that we help Soaring Spirits collect some data to prove that the SSLF programs (Widowed Village, Camp Widow, Widow's Voice) DO make a difference for widowed people.  

Please ... when you have an extra 20 minutes or so ... would you click on this link and complete the survey?  And feel free to share with…

SSLF Board Member, Janine Eggers, wrote this blog for Widow's Voice on March 20, 2013. It is powerful.  Michele Neff Hernandez has nominated her for BlogHer's Voice of the Year.

If you'd like to vote, too - here's a link:  http://www.blogher.com/times-you-want-stop

... and here is where you'll find Janine's original blog with all of the comments:  …

To all the widowed people I have known:  please forgive me.  I did not know how much pain you were feeling.  I didn't know that you would feel like you were having a heart attack, because the pressure and pain in your chest was so intense.  I did not know that you would be so exhausted just with the effort of walking through the day.  I didn't know you were frightened of suddenly being responsible for EVERYTHING, yet being unable to think clearly or nake decisions.  I didn't know that your…

What a difference one little click can make.  Soaring Spirits Loss Foundation (SSLF) - the non-profit "mother" organization of Widowed Village, Camp Widow and Widow's Voice - has an opportunity to win a $10,000 grant from the Women's Foundation of California (WFC).  

To celebrate Women's History Month, the WFC decided to put the decision about who gets one of their grants into the hands of the people.  That's where…

My husband had his own room, and I made it into a golf-themed rest area for him.  I had golf lamps, golf decorations, an area rug, wall hangings, even the electric plugs and light switches,  etc.  He loved it.  When he died I removed all the golf stuff from his old room and put much of it in the office.  I painted his room and put in an accent wall, changed the bed, and all that goes with it.  My sons emptied all his clothes and brought them to a charity in town.  They went through his tools…

Today, I had to deliver a "certificate of death" for my husband to an agency for a matter this is not important to mention here. As I sat in the parking lot, reviewing the form - it's facts and figures and names of those involved.  I've had to look at it many times before for other reasons that all of us here experience, so this time it was not as "surreal", "shocking" and traumatic for me as it was in the first days of this journey. I kind of mulled it over a bit, not sure why maybe just…

Me: So how are you doing?

Myself: I am doing okay.

Me: Not very convincing.

Myself: Why not? What do you mean.

Me: You always say your okay. Everybody you tell that to can sense your not okay. I think your kidding yourself.

Myself: Why is it that everything I say over the past year or so is analyzed? Why can't you and everyone else just accept that if I say I am okay that means I am okay. Nothing more, nothing less.

Me: Okay, okay. Touchy aren't…

Grief unleashed. Grief uncaged. Grief uncontained. Grief uncontrolled. Grief unfurled.

Grief released. Grief running rampant. Grief raging. Grief storm. Grief quake.

Grief seething. Grief set free. Grief fury. Grief burning. Grief destructing.



Are any of these new? I strongly doubt it.  Cliches are cliches because of…

To my surprise, I am still finding the positives in most of the situations that come up in my life. 

Although this train of thought has fallen off the tracks a few times in the last week, I have managed to keep it going. I am positive that my dogs are going to find themselves on the wrong end of a rolled up newspaper.  I am positive that the powers that be at the store where I bought my refrigerator will find out where they delivered it to.  Because it aint at my house !  I am…

My 21st blog on the 12th of September.

September....yikes. It's a difficult month for me. I have been keeping very busy, keeping my mind occupied with an array of things, keeping my body busy too.

              Breathe. 

Craig's birthday was September 2nd. He would have been 25. 

         Craig's accident was September 25th. He died on the 27th.  I am 27.

                   Our son is 10.5 months old...he is absolutely…

An old friend the other day asked me if I’m going to get married again. The question annoyed the heck out of me. It took years to builds the kind of relationship Don and I had and I’m not interested in getting married again just to have another warm body in the house. But I tried not to let my annoyance show when I answered, “no.” Then he says, “What’s the matter? Once was enough?” I wasn’t sure how to take that question and when I answered I felt like I was speaking the last lines in the…

I am a widow.

I suffered a heartbreaking loss.

Sometimes I will get emotional.

Sometimes I will be insecure.

Sometimes I'll be dancing with joy and moments later be crying my eyes out.

Sometimes I'll be sentimental and others I'll avoid thinking of the past.

Sometimes I'll look forward to the future and others I'll wonder "what future?"

I'll seek to love and be loved again while still holding on to a love I once had.

I learned what a wondrous gift love is and…