From My Inbox to Yours.... Widows Connect

Dear Reader,

I'm excited to share with you a note from a newer widow who recently found Widows Christian Place and my feature about Gayle Roper's book, "A Widow's Journey."
I was so pleased that she wrote to me and is also allowing me to share it with you. That's the intent of this blog--a place where widows can know they are not alone. It's not about me--I'm just here to serve you like an oasis in the wilderness. Your comments and interactions are the most important thing.

So let me step aside right now and we can all see what Karen wrote to me the other day:

I wanted to give my comments about Gayle’s book – “A Widow’s Journey”.  I bought my copy thru Amazon, a while back, and this is the best book I have read on widowhood thus far.

 

I lost my beloved husband Michael, suddenly and unexpectedly on July 18, 2016.  I am totally devastated, like all of you have felt, being plunged into this terrible and sorrowful, unwanted journey.  My husband and I were together 34 years, and would have been married 30 years on New Year’s Day 2017... 

I savored every page of Gayle’s book.  It was like she was writing this for me.  It was a book I wished I could go on reading forever, day after lonely day. I now walk where she walked, as she was missing and grieving for her beloved husband.  Every emotion and grief stricken experience she wrote about – I felt in my own heart.                                    

And when I came sadly to the end of that marvelous book, I saw that photo of Gayle and her beloved Chuck.  That picture conveyed the essence of her book, and what she lost when she lost him.  I could see the tremendous love they had for each other. You could see that Chuck must have said something outrageously funny to Gayle, and she was just about doubled over in laughter – with that humor reaching her in the way only Chuck could have said to her.  How well I could relate to that picture of them, in my own relationship with my husband!  He'd have me laughing so hard, I'd have tears rolling down my face, and he'd be so pleased with himself that he made me laugh. That silly, crooked smile of his, and that mischievous twinkle in his eyes.  My laughter would make him start laughing till we were gasping for breath and in tears.  Just the way Chuck looked because Gayle was laughing so hard.  Only your soul mate could touch you like that. 

Gayle was so exquisitely happy in that photo – you could just feel her joy in being in her husband’s arms.   I found myself grieving for Gayle, because I knew what she had lost.  Exactly what I had lost, each of us, in our own separate way – with our own so very much loved husbands. 

Gayle – I loved your book, and your message to us widows individually, at the end.  I hope that maybe some glorious day – we can all meet up in Heaven with our own husbands, and share a laugh or a thousand!  Chuck and Mike will probably be thinking up new and delightful ways to make us laugh again, after all these tears.  No more tears in Heaven, and no more ever being without our beloved husbands again...

Love in Jesus,

Karen  

 

I hope Karen's note touched your heart like it touched mine. Would you like to see the picture of Gayle and Chuck that she mentioned? I can't post it here without permission, but you may go to Amazon and LOOK INSIDE A Widow's Journey. Look at the last pages of the book and you can't miss it. While you're there you might like to look at Gayle's other books too. She's an award-winning author, and her books are perfect companions to fill a widow's times when the house is just too quiet or she's eating alone in a restaurant, travelling, etc.

Ferree and Gayle at
Montrose Christian Writers
Conference, July 2016

 

And why wait 'til Heaven to meet Gayle? She hosts a wonderful widows retreat every spring. I'll give you the information about that tomorrow. It would be great fun and the beginning of great friendships if a group of us here a the WCP could attend together!

Until tomorrow,

♥ ferree

Click here for A Widow's Journey. Click on the LOOK INSIDE and the arrows to get to the last pages of the book.