A stressful, protracted divorce. A difficult, painful death of a beloved husband. And suddenly, after age 50, you’re on your own again. Your children have moved out, your parents are aging fast or deceased, your friends’ lives continue onward, seemingly unchanged. Being suddenly single after age 50 can be terrifying, but eventually it can also be liberating. It can be fraught with worry and decisions you’re unprepared initially to make, but it can also be a time to reevaluate, reestablish, and reinvent. It can be financially and emotionally unstable at times, but it can be the start of a new chapter, or the discovery of someone you didn’t know you were, or could become, after the grief of a loss so difficult. Long-time friends and authors Barbara Ballinger and Margaret Crane have a lot in common. Both lived in the same city for years. Both are writers. Both married their husbands right out of college. Both are mothers of grown children who have left home. And both had aging parents when these difficult journeys began. Both found themselves alone, husbands lost to divorce and death, two separate situations that were equally traumatic— for Barbara, a divorce that took four years to end, and for Margaret, a five-year, gut-wrenching siege of myriad cancers that ended in death. Barbara and Margaret struggled but discovered not only that their new lives were, indeed, worth living, but that the insight gleaned from their experiences could help other people in similar straits. The result is Suddenly Single After 50, an honest and riveting, yet funny and poignant guide that provides advice for those who find themselves divorced, widowed, or otherwise suddenly single just about the time they start getting those AARP cards in the mail and while many of their friends are gleefully discussing retirement plans and toasting milestone wedding anniversaries. Suddenly Single After 50 is told with authenticity, wit, and compassion. They discuss living alone, attending social events alone, eating by themselves, sleeping alone, walking and traveling alone, then how they also came to feel they were not alone, not really, with loyal friends and family. They share how their once right-sized houses suddenly felt empty, too big, and too full of stuff that no longer made sense. They write about all the legal and accounting woes that befell them. And they tell readers what it’s like to be over 50 and dating again—after decades out of that scene, which had changed in unfathomable yet often hilarious ways. Suddenly Single After 50 addresses what life is really like when it’s suddenly shaped as single. It helps readers understand the grief, frustration, and sadness alongside reawakening into the world. Anyone who finds themselves suddenly single in middle age and beyond--or knows someone who is--will find in these pages both advice and reflection, support, and a way forward.

Vashti Hunter knew that something was wrong when she received her fiancé’s nervous phone call the night before their wedding, but she was too distracted by visions of wedding grandeur to listen to her instincts. Instead, what was supposed to be the happiest day of the 26-year-old’s life quickly turns into the most humiliating, when she is left at the altar. After battling a fierce bout of depression, Vashti regroups and begins dating again. A string of failed relationship attempts help her figure out not only what she does not want in a mate, but who she is. It’s only after she evolves into the person she wants to be that she finds the man who is worthy of her love. Because of their 20-year age difference, Vashti’s new relationship is met with opposition from her family, friends, and especially his daughter, who resents Vashti’s presence in her father’s life. Their relationship is further complicated when Vashti’s long-lost fiancé returns remorsefully. Will Vashti find him worthy of a second chance?

'Suddenly Single' is based on Sallie, a 30-year-old single woman whose 8-year relationship has just ended. She goes through stages of withdrawal, denial and general misery, taking refuge in the supportive comradeship of a group of girlfriends, together with numerous bottles of wine.

Let me take you on my transforming journey from married life to single life as I experience the ups and downs on my sometimes Bumpy road of New Beginnings. The knowledge that I obtain and how I transform intellutually & spirtually in my journey putting the past to sleep and starting all over again.

Raising your children alone may not have been your plan, but these 52 encouragements will support and inspire you to thrive in your new role.

The Suddenly Single experience was something that I was not prepared for, and it was hard to accept. My dream in life was to be married and a stay-at-home mom. Everything, how I thought about myself and my world, was devoted to that plan. I had not planned on being divorced, a single mom, bankrupt, and living with my parents. I had not planned on a broken heart, a shattered sense of self, or desperate need. When it all fell apart, the ideal sense of self I had created to ensure those plans suddenly was exposed to be nothing more than a sham. I had no idea who I was or how to keep going. I felt trapped and helpless. Little did I know that God would use my singleness as a bridge way to understand myself, my faith, and my calling for the first time. I thought I was simply trying to survive single parenthood and heal from my divorce, but God used it for much more. He gave me the freedom He had always intended, an identity that would come from hardship but one that I would love, and a calling that runs so deep there is no way I could ever stop. This book outlines the steps I took both biblically and therapeutically to find who I am and how I wanted to live. *Acceptance of reality. *God's design for singleness. *Biblical perspective of grief. *What is forgiveness and what is it not? *What do we do with all our feelings? *Walking in faith. *Get a life and have fun! *God restores. *Hearing God's calling. *Getting ready. *Go when called.

Wedded, bedded…and suddenly separated Unable to cope with her dangerously seductive new husband's uptight family (how did he get to be so hot coming from that bunch?), Lisa Morelli is back home. Too bad there's no peace there, either! Lisa vows to stick to her newly single life, despite every female relative's despair at letting a catch slip away (after all, she's hitting spinsterhood—at 27!). But there's one small detail she hasn't counted on. Alex Mackenzie likes being married to Lisa. And he's wooing his runaway bride with everything from tight T-shirts and torn jeans, to motorcycle rides and tattoos! With this kind of temptation, how will Lisa resist returning to wedded bliss?