Women and Adversity: Widowhood

Winter, Chicago, 2014

Winter, Chicago, 2014

Cheri Blair, wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, launched a study concerning widows around the world. It indicated that 13.6 million widows were living in the United States in 2010. This number was the third highest in the world after China and India. The website www.hopeforwidows.org states that 700,000 women become widows each year. It certainly accounts for a tremendous amount of adversity that women face.

Concerns that preoccupy widows are:

  • Finances – Can they maintain their lifestyle?
  • Home maintenance – How will they be able to keep up with all the repairs needed?
  • Social interaction – Will they have to establish new friendships?
  • Loneliness – How can they fill the gap the husband left?

SOLUTION 1:

They can start the healing process by checking out Websites:

  • com begins by stating, “The first thing you’ll notice about this site is that it’s not focused on grief and death as much as support and recovery.  We offer you compassion and encouragement– seeing that you are struggling we are here to help you to stand on your own and to say “Yes” you can do it.”
  • org says its mission is to ease the burdens of widows and their families.
  • org states it was established in 1995 and is the first online information and self-help resource for and by widows and widowers.

 SOLUTION 2:

  • Join a group
  • Share your grief

   SOLUTION 3:

  • Keep a journal
  • Write a blog

  These solutions can help lessen the grief.

 

Article By: Jo Ann Mathews

I published three ebooks in 2020: Women and Adversity, Honoring 23 Black Women; Women and Adversity, Recognizing 23 Notable Mothers; and Women and Adversity, Saluting 23 Faithful Suffragists to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. These books are meant to be study guides for all students from grade school through college to help in choosing topics for assignments and to learn more about these noteworthy women. Go to amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and goodreads.com to learn more.

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