While was assisting at a retreat healing service, I met a widow in her 70s I’ll call Anne who had recently lost her husband to a sudden fatal stroke. He had been, to that point, in good health fora man his age. Besides her grieving the sudden loss of him, she now found herself full …
I remember a young woman in her early 30s I’ll call Liz. Liz had lost her young husband to a sudden fatal heart attack after just under a year of marriage. To all appearances, he had been in good health. He kissed her goodbye one morning, left for work, and never returned. Since she worked …
I recall a Saturday morning coffee shop conversation I had with two men whom I’ll call Bill and George. Bill was in his early 30s, and his friend George was in his mid-60s. They had both lost their wives to cancer during the past year. They both were somewhat pleasantly surprised, and at the same …
I remember a young widow in her mid-30s I’ll call Laura. Her husband of five years had recently died suddenly of an aneurism that ruptured in his brain. The aneurism was one of those hidden time bombs that had gone undetected within an otherwise very healthy young man. He had been a varsity athlete both …
One day, a woman in her early-40s I’ll call Rosemary came to see me. She told me that she had recently lost her husband (also in his early-40s) to liver disease which he had contracted after a lifetime of excessive drinking. She said that when he was sober he was really a sweet guy, loving …
I remember leading a wake service for an elderly woman in her early 80s who had died at the end of a slow decline into dementia lasting about five years. Her husband, whom I’ll call Bert, had been her caregiver for over four years until caring for her in their home became overwhelming. After the …
During my many years of family life ministry, I have met a number of widowed persons like two I’ll call Patti and Lou. They had both lost their spouses of 20+ years to sudden death, Patti through a deadly car accident, and Lou through a massive deadly stroke. They had both been completely blindsided by …
I remember meeting for coffee a friend I’ll call Ashley with whom I had been associated in family life ministry the past couple of years. She had recently lost her husband to a tragic industrial accident. She said she honestly believed that their marriage of almost nine years had been closer and happier than most …
I was at a parish picnic when I ran into a young man I’ll call Kevin. About a year earlier, he had lost his wife to drowning when she fell out of a friend’s boat during a sudden violent storm. Kevin had almost drowned himself while trying in vain to reach her through the high …
I remember a conversation initiated by a widow in her 40s I’ll call Jenny. Jenny was the mother of four sons aged eleven, thirteen, fifteen, and seventeen. Her husband had recently been killed instantly by a drunken driver while he was biking along a country road near town. Jenny said that she and her husband …
was pushing my grocery cart down an aisle of the neighborhood supermarket when I met another shopper I’ll call Ruth coming the opposite way. I knew Ruth, a widow in her mid-60s, had recently lost her husband to cancer. I asked her how she was getting along. She told me how kind and supportive her …
An older widow I guessed to be in her mid-60s, whom I’ll call Mary, quietly confronted me at a large party hosted by a mutual friend. We had not yet been introduced to each other, but when someone at the party mentioned that I was a priest (not dressed in clerical attire), it was like …
Beginning Experience 