As a bank executive, Herb Knoll was known as a man who could get the job done. But when Knoll lost his wife to cancer he found few resources that could help him recover. And the more he learned about the plight of widowers, from high suicide rates to physical and emotional problems, the more he became motivated to write a book with fellow widowers, for fellow widowers. Knoll's The Widower's Journey tackles tough questions and provides advice on many topics, including: how men can process grief keeping healthy during stressful times managing a career while coping with loss drawing strength from your faith reentering the dating world dealing with the issues that sex, dating, and marriage create parenting as a widower solving financial and legal problems preserving your late partner's memory for yourself and for family and friends Knoll breaks down barriers that block men in their journeys to recovery. He encourages men to seek out the fellowship of other widowers, and he provides resources that men need to move forward. He also identifies how society fails widowers, and spells out how institutions need to change so widowers can receive the support they deserve.

Have you recently lost your husband? Are there days when you feel so terribly alone—and that no one else could possibly understand? Author Gayle Roper understands. As a recent widow herself, Gayle writes: So who am I now that there's only one place at the table...one pillow with a head dent, one damp towel after a shower. There's only one toothbrush in the holder. The seat is never left up anymore. I can still write Mrs. in front of my name, but I'm no longer in a marriage relationship. You need two people for a marriage, and there's only me. Is there only you? Then join Gayle as she draws on her emotions during the loss of her beloved husband, Chuck, and offers you a compassionate devotional to encourage you through your darkest days. Gayle knows a widow's pain is deep. But she also knows God's love is deeper still. And it's in His love you'll find your deepest comfort.

Once upon a time, I viewed the Air Force as my personal entertainment and dating service. I was a hard-charging, well-paid, impeccably-educated, high-functioning, award-winning anesthetist and clinical instructor of anesthesia as well as an Air Force captain on my way to becoming a colonel in record time. Beyond that, I worked in a highly specialized area of the military, dabbling in the shadowy world behind the scenes in places some have never heard of, in situations that rarely make the nightly news. Known by important people, I was a guy who could "get 'er done" no matter what the order or mission at hand. On call twenty-four hours a day, I never knew when my next mission would be called. One moment in the operating room in San Antonio, the next on a plane bound for some unnamed location for reasons I wasn't privy to. Leaving my strict Baptist upbringing behind, I was living my dream of becoming a "hero," while fueling my ever burgeoning need for newness and more, sleeping my way around the world with no rules and no conscience.One woman, my childhood image of the "girl next door," changed all that. We met in the back anesthesia hallway at Wilford Hall U.S. Air Force Medical Center. She, a mere first year anesthesiology resident. Me, a superstar staff nurse anesthetist. Despite her lowly position, she was clearly the kindest and sexiest woman I'd ever met. Within a month of our first date, I chose to forego my aspirations of military glory and "settle down." However, soon after Joan and I married, I felt trapped. Trapped by what I recognized as the mundane life of my parents. Trapped by Joan's desire to bear a child. Trapped to the point that I began fantasizing about her death. Then came the call. Twenty-five weeks into her pregnancy, Joan was diagnosed with leukemia. In the blink of an eye, I was transformed from my own personal cynosure to the husband of the pregnant lady with cancer, caretaker, guardian of my wife and daughter's lives, and reluctant chief decision maker on how to reconcile my desperate desire for her to live with her disdain for life support measures. This story depicts not only the battle against cancer faced by Joan and our unborn child, but also my own attempt to move past earlier misdeeds, desperately praying for a miracle, hoping that, despite my sins, God would deign to save the woman and child I loved. Written from the perspective of a former military true believer who turned his back on dreams of glory, chose love, and became a (hesitant) husband, then single father, Broken Road: A Widower' is similar to Nadia Bolz-Weber's Accidental Saints and Anne Lamott's Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace. It seeks to find goodness in the most unlikely of places and characters - me.

If you or a close friend are now or about to become a widower, this book can help you. The physical, emotional, and psychological pain will be greater than you can imagine. A widower may think that he is going crazy, his judgement is often distorted, and his social filters can be almost nonexistent. Nights often become sleepless delusional times from which there is no escape. Widower to Widower is written to provide widowers with desperately needed help during their grieving process. It is also a resource to therapists who assist widowers, to friends and family who want to better understand what he is going through, and to women who have befriended a widower. Colby's own experience made him desperate to find answers so he could avoid making bad life choices. He quickly found that resources for widowers were minimal and often of questionable value. This led him to write Widower to Widower. He drew upon thirty years of writing experience writing during his non-profit career. REVIEWS: "Fred Colby's book, Widower to Widower, shares his experiences as he navigates the grief process following the death of his wife. With a straight-forward voice and clear writing style, Fred provides insight from his personal journey to provide education, understanding and comfort to other men who are grieving. This book is an essential tool for grief counselors as well as their male clients." Mia Towbin, MS, LMFT - Grief Counselor. "For any man who has suffered, either recently or not so recently, the death of his beloved wife, Fred Colby's book is essential reading. As a fellow widower, I give this book my highest recommendation." Robert Devereaux, Widower, Writer, Actor Hundreds of widowers have offered their praise of Widower to Widower on Fred Colby's Testimonies/Reviews page at fredcolby.com.

How do older women come to terms with widowhood? Are they vulnerable or courageous, predictable or creative in dealing with this life challenge? Most books about widows usually focus on younger women; this book interweaves the voices of older widows their experiences and insights to show how they have come to terms with widowhood and have recreated their lives in new, unsuspected ways. The widows speak about how they relate to their children, their friends, to men. With powerful emotions they describe their husbands’ final illnesses and deaths, and the challenging early days of widowhood. Disputing stereotypes about older women and widows, The Widowed Self allows the reader to visualize the impact of losing one’s life partner and offers a new way of thinking about widowhood. This new book by Deborah Kestin van den Hoonaard fills a void in previous work on widowhood. Rather than seeing these women as unfortunate, passive victims of life, the reader will come to appreciate the strength and creativity with which these women face one of life’s greatest challenges, a challenge that affects more than half of all women over the age of sixty-five. Widows and their families, scholars, social workers and other professionals who work with older adults will all be interested in reading The Widowed Self: The Older Woman’s Journey through Widowhood.

"For I know well the plans I have in mind for you ... plans for your welfare, not for woe! Plans to give you a future full of hope." Jeremiah 29:11 In her book Walk with me, Jesus, philosopher and writer Ronda Chervin, Ph.D. offers widows a practical spiritual path that can help them attain hope and faith in God's love and provision. Using the stories of women saints who suffered the loss of a husband, she encourages and affirms women in their new state in life while leading them on the journey to healing and interior joy. Drawing from the themes of the Stations of the Cross, Dr. Chervin ties the sufferings of widowhood with the Passion of the Savior in a way that is both beautiful and healing. Quotes from Scripture and the saints, and prayers to help you turn your heart toward the Lord and His Mother, offer consolation and hope.

With her signature warmth, hilarity, and tendency to overshare, Leslie Gray Streeter gives us real talk about love, loss, grief, and healing in your own way that "will make you laugh and cry, sometimes on the same page" (James Patterson). Leslie Gray Streeter is not cut out for widowhood. She's not ready for hushed rooms and pitying looks. She is not ready to stand graveside, dabbing her eyes in a classy black hat. If she had her way she'd wear her favorite curve-hugging leopard print dress to Scott's funeral; he loved her in that dress! But, here she is, having lost her soulmate to a sudden heart attack, totally unsure of how to navigate her new widow lifestyle. ("New widow lifestyle." Sounds like something you'd find products for on daytime TV, like comfy track suits and compression socks. Wait, is a widow even allowed to make jokes?) Looking at widowhood through the prism of race, mixed marriage, and aging, Black Widow redefines the stages of grief, from coffin shopping to day-drinking, to being a grown-ass woman crying for your mommy, to breaking up and making up with God, to facing the fact that life goes on even after the death of the person you were supposed to live it with. While she stumbles toward an uncertain future as a single mother raising a baby with her own widowed mother (plot twist!), Leslie looks back on her love story with Scott, recounting their journey through racism, religious differences, and persistent confusion about what kugel is. Will she find the strength to finish the most important thing that she and Scott started? Tender, true, and endearingly hilarious, Black Widow is a story about the power of love, and how the only guide book for recovery is the one you write yourself.