The Widows' Handbook: Poetic Reflections on Grief and Survival

Foreword

xvii Foreword Death of one’s life partner is a loss like no other. Many who have suffered the loss have no words to convey their grief, their doubts about their ability to carry on alone, and their hopes for a future strengthened by the love that caused them to appreciate their own worth. Mainly through poetry, the compilers of this anthology have provided the words widows feel but often cannot speak. Fittingly, The Widows’ Handbook is both empathetic and encouraging. The poems speak first of the long days and nights consumed by mourning, then of the need to tackle the necessities of living without the support that once sustained them, and ultimately of the capacity still to seek the joys of being alive. Readers of The Widows’ Handbook will return to favorite expressions that capture their own experiences as they indulge in remembrances, yet grow in their determination to survive, just as the one who loved them would have willed. I commend Jacqueline Lapidus and Lise Menn for an undertaking of extraordinary value to people coping with the strains and stress of widowhood and striving to make their independent work and days satisfying. Ruth Bader Ginsburg Associate Justice Supreme Court of the United States ...