Pete‘s birthday came around in a week that also included Mother‘s Day and the arrival of his death certificate. It was a week where I...

According to researchers*, there are five distinct stages of grief the majority of individuals will experience. These stages include...

In the last little while I've been attempting a bit of citizen science around grieving. Namely, can shoes fill the voice of a dead...

I have no actual words to describe my ‘village’ other than amazing. My parents live the best part of 6 hours away. Pete’s parents are 8....

I have to admit that at the minute, I'm attempting to fool myself and everyone around me. It’s the façade of having it all under control....

When I cremated Pete, I didn’t ever expect discussion with the children to turn to whether they were smelling their father’s butt or not....

The day of Pete's funeral was the most bizzare day of my life. I kind of feel like for most of it, it was an out of body experience and...

When I was planning Pete's funeral, there seemed to me to be no apparent reason as to why I wouldn't speak about him. I absolutely...

When we were married in the Conargo Church on Easter Saturday, March 26, 2005, and we uttered the words ‘till death do us part’ neither...

I have learned that widowing is just like being a first time mother: You have no idea what you’re doing. There is no instruction book to...

Pete hated cats. We now own a giant one called Albert. Albert is a Maine Coon cat. One of the biggest domesticated cat breeds in the...

Choosing an outfit for your husband to wear in his coffin is much more complex than I had imagined. Casual clothes? Suit and tie? A...

Telling your children their father has died is as bad as you think it would be. It might be worse. I just know I wasn't prepared for the...

PART TWO Once the initial shock is over, time has no place. Hours disappeared. People came and went and coffee and drinks and food were...

PART ONE On January 20 this year, my husband died. Just like that. We had lunch. Less than an hour later, he was dead. When we’d finished...