A lot of widows feel that they have betrayed their spouse by continuing to live. It's deranged thinking. I know that, but that doesn't stop you feeling it.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
For many women, becoming a widow does not just mean the heartache of losing a husband, but often losing everything else as well.
Most people think that a widow is inhabiting some elegiac world of - it's like Mozart's 'Requiem Mass.' You know, it's very beautiful and elevated thoughts and some measure of dignity. I didn't have that experience at all. I had one pratfall after another.
Some women lose their husbands, and their worlds change because their financial circumstances change. All I have in common with them is a grief.
The home funeral - caring for the dead ourselves - changes our relationship to grieving. If you have been married to someone for 50 years, why would you let someone take them away the moment they die?
There are widows who long for friendly voices and that spirit of anxious concern which speaks of love.
Being a widower is not that groovy when you lose someone you really love, and you have to go out and date again.
Over the years I've seen people lose a spouse and then withdraw and lose interest in life, and I believe we need to resist that.
Divorce is probably as painful as death.
You won't believe it, but for the first two years of our marriage I lived off my wife. Like every self-respecting man, I hated it.
The comfortable estate of widowhood is the only hope that keeps up a wife's spirits.