Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. CONTENTS vii
3. Introduction 1
4. Part I: Prologue—Expectant Widows
5. What We Were Afraid Of: A Memoir 17
6. The Queen Has Spoken 29
7. Living a Life 33
8. Preparing for the Journey through Grief 41
9. Deserted/Dumped for a Second Time 48
10. From Pre-Widow to Merry Widow 52
11. Part II: Recent Widows
12. A Widow’s Notes: The First Six Months 65
13. My Other Half 72
14. The Cloak 78
15. “The Most Precious Fit”: A Dialogue with C. S. Lewis’s A Grief Observed 88
16. On Grief 98
17. Wedding Rings 103
18. The Afterlife of an Archive 110
19. A Healing Garden 115
20. You See, I Told You So! 117
21. Yes, I Miss My Husband, but I’m Also Discovering the Pleasures of Living Alone 120
22. Part III: Long-Time Widows
23. The Grief Convention 127
24. 10 Scary Things I Have Done since My Husband Died 133
25. Being Alone 140
26. Re-creating My Life 143
27. Becoming Maggie 149
28. Who I Am Revealed 155
29. Losing the Artist, Living with His Art 159
30. After the Aftermath 168
31. Three Poems 170
32. Part IV: Unique Takes or Digging Deeper
33. Widow-to- Widow 175
34. Parenting as a Widow 185
35. Memories of a Widow’s Daughter 190
36. Lost Acts . . . 199
37. Dealing with Double Loss: Husband and Hearing 204
38. Synchronicity and the Secular Mind 211
39. Mourning American-Style 216
40. The Rocks That Bind 219
41. On Not Feeling Sad 224
42. What They Don’t Tell You 229
43. Nine Things Resilient People Do after Losing a Spouse or Partner 235
44. Make Lemonade?! 243
45. Part V: Epilogue
46. The Missing Vow 255
47. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 259
48. ARTIST’S STATEMENT 261
49. NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS 263