Three years ago this winter, I came as close as I ever care to come to widowhood, and it has forever changed me. I was 36, and Marshall and I were approaching our second anniversary (and 5th year of being together). In August, I was cutting his hair, which I do every month (like it or not), and a few days after that, he had a small pimple come up on the back of his neck. I noticed it, but it wasn’t until a few days after that that I noticed that it was getting larger and larger. I finally convinced him to go to the doctor when it was getting close to the size of a ping pong ball. Over the next few weeks, he went on a couple of different rounds of antibiotics, and it finally went away. Somewhere around mid October, he started having... [Read more]

Church Candles on Christmas Eve I had a secret over the holidays. I was in mourning over Christmas and I didn’t want my children to know. While my husband and I took our children to attend a Nativity celebration on Christmas Eve in Germany, my brother and sister were taking care of other obligations in Canada. The email to summon us had landed in my email box the day before. It put me in shock, but there was no way for me to respond except to pass along the information. My siblings and I have always been close. Being separated from them is often difficult, but this was the hardest time of all. A relative from whom we’d been long estranged was dying. For almost twenty-five years the three of us have known the call to the deathbed... [Read more]

Hi Everyone – Over the next several days, you’re going to be introduced to some special guests from around b5media who are stepping in to help a friend out. You see, Anna has fallen ill and is currently under the weather and under doctors care so she won’t be posting for a few days, perhaps a little longer – but I promise, she will be back soon. If you’d like to leave a special message for her, please do so in the comment section of this post. I’ll see that she gets those, at least. As for the rest of the goods around here, well, she’s under strict orders by me, to not worry about a thing. In the meantime, Anna wanted me to pass on word that she’s thinking of you and hopes you are coping with... [Read more]

Thank you for visiting b5media’s Widows Quest. Are you a widow or widower with the experience and passion to write Widows Quest? Leave a comment here or email Hsien Lei, the b5media Family and Relationships Editor. Update: Thanks to all those who contacted me. We’ve hired a new blogger–Anna Farmery–who will begin soon. [Read more]

I want to introduce you all to a wonderful artist that understands grief. She is a soul-sister of mine; you know when you meet someone, and you know you have known each other somewhere, sometime before? That is the way it was with Noreen. We immediately found our place with each other. I can’t say enough about this lovely woman, her heart, her skill, and her art. She wrote me this today, and gave me permission to reprint it. She has a wonderful and tangible way to comfort yourself when grief is present in your life. The Tribe of Healer Star Dolls ~for healing grief~ After my Dad died, we were driving home from the celebration of his life. I was thinking about my Dad, and looked up. There in the night sky, was a very very bright... [Read more]