http://www.a1articles.com en-us editorial@a1articles.com My youngest son was eleven when his father died. For the longest time he would cling to me when we were parting company, giving hugs and more hugs. I know this was his way of working through the loss of his father and I knew that eventually this phase wo... http://www.a1articles.com/article_554160_43.html 10th June 2008 There are days you sit in a chair and stare out the window because living seems to take too much energy. Even to think about what to make for dinner is an all-consuming task. It can be daunting, feeling as if there is nothing in this world that will ever ... http://www.a1articles.com/article_536138_24.html 13th May 2008 When a relationship ends due to one partner dying, what is the correct time period to begin dating again? Grief is such a funny, unpredictable animal. Many people in years’ past think a year is a suitable time to wait before incorporating life changes, ... http://www.a1articles.com/article_536115_39.html 13th May 2008 The left side of the bed where my husband used to sleep remains neatly made, hardly a ripple disturbing the quilted surface. I sleep on the right side each night, where I had slept the twenty-plus years we were together. With time, I developed a habit of... http://www.a1articles.com/article_531998_24.html 08th May 2008 When my husband was diagnosed with esophagus cancer, we never talked about him dying, except in the very beginning. I think we were afraid to voice the worst scenario we could think of, him not making it through this disease. He refused to consider taking... http://www.a1articles.com/article_531524_27.html 08th May 2008 Elaine Williams copyright 2008 My husband was ill ten months with cancer when I had the dream. I had been taking care of his needs for almost eleven months, and even though some days there seemed to be progress, in hindsight I see it was really a stead... http://www.a1articles.com/article_499405_24.html 28th March 2008 Elaine Williams copyright 2008 After my husband’s death, I enclosed myself in an emotional shell. A hard cased, untouchable cocoon of nothingness. I wanted to be numb, I wanted to be left alone. Many days my self-imposed prison made me want to be lov... http://www.a1articles.com/article_499404_24.html 28th March 2008 Elaine Williams copyright 2008 When my husband was diagnosed with esophagus cancer, we never talked about him dying, except in the very beginning. I think we were afraid to voice the worst scenario we could think of, him not making it through this dise... http://www.a1articles.com/article_499402_27.html 28th March 2008 Elaine Williams ©2008 Grief and loss come in a multitude of forms. There is grief due to loss of a loved one but there's also the sense of grief related to illness and the impending demise of a loved one. When our family pet, our dog Bear had to be... http://www.a1articles.com/article_499401_24.html 28th March 2008 Elaine Williams ©2008 What if as a new widow or widower you began dating again after not dating for many years? What if you had high hopes of bringing love once again into your life? What if you met a scammer online but thought they were a real person... http://www.a1articles.com/article_473874_39.html 13th February 2008 Elaine Williams ©2008 When does talking about the loss of someone get to be too much? Is it still grief or is it descending into depression? Talking and writing about grief for me has been a catharsis, a way to heal my thoughts, emotions and fears.... http://www.a1articles.com/article_473869_24.html 13th February 2008 Elaine Williams ©2008 My husband chose to be cremated, and to that end I had arranged a time for friends and family to gather for a memorial service in remembrance. I gathered pictures of our twenty plus years together, creating a wonderful collage in... http://www.a1articles.com/article_473864_24.html 13th February 2008 Elaine Williams ©2008 I recall a period in time, at about 18 months after my husband passed away, that I felt pretty good about myself. I had handled what life had thrown me and come out battered, but mostly okay on the other side. After caretaking my... http://www.a1articles.com/article_473862_24.html 13th February 2008 Elaine Williams ©2008 The left side of the bed where my husband used to sleep remains neatly made, hardly a ripple disturbing the quilted surface. I sleep on the right side each night, where I had slept the twenty-plus years we were together. With ti... http://www.a1articles.com/article_466948_28.html 02nd February 2008 Elaine Williams copyright 2008 When a relationship ends due to one partner dying, what is the correct time period to begin dating again? Grief is such a funny, unpredictable animal. Many people in years’ past think a year is a suitable time to wait b... http://www.a1articles.com/article_466946_39.html 02nd February 2008 Elaine Williams ©2008 There were many nights as a new widow, I fell into an exhausted, restless sleep. In the first two years after my husband’s death, I had countless dreams in which he appeared. My dreaming seemed to revolve around day-to-day issu... http://www.a1articles.com/article_466945_24.html 02nd February 2008 CATSKILL MOUNTAINS, NY: After her storybook 23-year marriage ended when her husband succumbed to cancer, romance writer and widowed mother of three Elaine Williams wanted another prince—but found herself politely holding her nose in the company of a who... http://www.a1articles.com/article_461878_55.html 25th January 2008 ©2008 There are days you sit in a chair and stare out the window because living seems to take too much energy. Even to think about what to make for dinner is an all-consuming task. It can be daunting, feeling as if there is nothing in this world that ... http://www.a1articles.com/article_461877_28.html 25th January 2008 ©2008 I know when I started the year out fresh in 2007, I felt incredibly lonely. I had been widowed for over two years, and found that when a spouse dies and you’re no longer part of a couple, it seems to affect the dynamics of previous friendships... http://www.a1articles.com/article_457029_43.html 22nd January 2008 ©2008 My youngest son was eleven when his father died. For the longest time he would cling to me when we were parting company, giving hugs and more hugs. I know this was his way of working through the loss of his father and I knew that eventually thi... http://www.a1articles.com/article_457028_43.html 22nd January 2008 ©2008 Is there such a thing as normal in grief? I believe we all have experiences that are similar, to a degree. But I also feel that grieving is an entirely personal thing. We all react to loss in our own way, in our own time and according to our own... http://www.a1articles.com/article_457027_43.html 22nd January 2008 ©2008 When my husband was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, we were shocked, never even having suspected this illness. He had always been relatively healthy, and then one day he couldn’t eat anymore. It all began a few months before the diagnosis... http://www.a1articles.com/article_457026_43.html 22nd January 2008 ©2008 That last moment of my husband’s life, I stood beside his bed. It was the final moment of our twenty plus years together. My sister-in-law and my middle son were on the opposite side of the bed. My eldest son sat at the kitchen table. I had be... http://www.a1articles.com/article_457025_43.html 22nd January 2008 Elaine Williams ©2008 Recently I was asked to describe the best years of my life. Being a widow of 4 years and mother, there are many different times I considered to be the best years of my life. When I was younger, I remember summers going on seemin... http://www.a1articles.com/article_252997_28.html 19th January 2008 Elaine Williams ©2008 I lost my husband and best friend of 22 years when he was 59 and I was 47. We have three boys and I'd always thought we'd be together forever, however long that was, or at least another twenty years. I felt blindsided when I lost... http://www.a1articles.com/article_252996_28.html 19th January 2008 Elaine Williams © 2008 There are many unique and varied reactions to grief and loss. We may all react differently and yet the end result, many times, is the same. There is a sense of a gaping hole in our chest, a deep emptiness that at first nothi... http://www.a1articles.com/article_252995_28.html 19th January 2008 Elaine Williams © 2008 According to the U.S Census Bureau, there are approximately 700,000 new widows every year. To me, this is staggering, and I never thought I’d be a statistic. I've been asked many times if I wrote A Journey Well Taken: Life ... http://www.a1articles.com/article_252993_28.html 19th January 2008 Elaine Williams ©2008 I remember vividly the day my husband was diagnosed with cancer. We sat in the doctor's office, not saying anything after the doctor confirmed the lesions on Joseph's esophagus were malignant. Even though we had asked for the tru... http://www.a1articles.com/article_252991_43.html 19th January 2008 Elaine Williams ©2008 I became a widow at forty-seven years of age. I'd always thought my husband and I would be together forever, or at least a lot longer than twenty years. We have three boys, who at the time were eleven, eighteen and nineteen. Wh... http://www.a1articles.com/article_252990_28.html 19th January 2008 Elaine Williams ©2008 Wait, does that sound feminist, or sexist? It’s not meant to. There’s a story behind the shirt. I re-entered the dating world after 27 years absence. I had high hopes. I was a good person, a valuable human being with wants a... http://www.a1articles.com/article_252987_39.html 19th January 2008 Elaine Williams ©2008 The last two months of my husband's life I slept next to the bed Hospice had set up in our living room. At night, I lay on the loveseat I'd come to hate and listen intently to his labored breathing. It was what I did when my kids... http://www.a1articles.com/article_252985_28.html 19th January 2008 Elaine Williams ©2008 I've become empowered, in total and full control of my life, even when there's something that blindsides you when you least expect it. The thing is, I didn't ask, seek or want this new empowerment. I thought I was doing okay. I w... http://www.a1articles.com/article_252936_28.html 19th January 2008 Elaine Williams ©2008 One of my biggest challenges has been raising three boys as a single parent. I've been told by other parents that it's easier to deal with boys than girls. Usually this comes from a parent who has all girls. I totally, wholly di... http://www.a1articles.com/article_252935_28.html 19th January 2008 By Elaine Williams ©2008 When I lost my husband to cancer in 2004, my life as I knew it did a 360 degree turn. Nothing was the same and yet only one thing had changed. I had lost someone near to my heart, a part of my life for twenty plus years, the f... http://www.a1articles.com/article_252934_28.html 19th January 2008 Elaine Williams ©2008 Due to life circumstances, the death of a spouse, I had been out of the dating game for some time and reentered the scene after a 27-year absence. I experienced what I like to call “culture shock”. One definition is as follo... http://www.a1articles.com/article_252931_28.html 19th January 2008 Elaine Williams ©2008 One day, a little over three months after my husband's cancer diagnosis, was the first time I really thought he was going to die. He lay in bed and he could not get up from being so weak. I was so incredibly frightened. I knew wi... http://www.a1articles.com/article_252929_28.html 19th January 2008