Moving Forward: The Widow's Journey

This best selling book made the shortlist for the 2022 Selfies Autobiography/Memoir Award and also was a finalist for the Foreword Indies Book Award for 2022. Through her own personal experience of losing her husband, Arlene Sacks offers insights and guidance on how to navigate the various stages of grief, including shock, denial, guilt, and acceptance. She also shares practical advice on how to deal with life after loss, such as managing finances, making decisions on your own, and handling the loneliness. Thirteen other widows featured in the book represent a diverse range of experiences, backgrounds, and cultures. Their stories offer a unique perspective on grief and loss, and how different people cope in their own way. Moving Forward is not only a source of comfort and solace for those dealing with grief, but also a practical guide for those wanting to support a loved one through their journey. This book is a must- read for anyone who has lost a partner or knows someone who has experienced this devastating loss. "Over the years, I came to recognize that someday I might lose my husband, and that it would be a catastrophic loss. What I never expected was that along with the horrific pain, I would also lose a huge piece of my identity and my life as I knew it." Thus began Arlene Sacks journey of loss, grief and healing, after the illness and death of Howard, her beloved spouse of forty-seven years. As Sacks gathered her thoughts and memories in preparation for writing Moving Forward, she came to see that, although widows might share some common ground, no one story of widowhood could capture the whole of its challenges or provide the widest range of wisdom gained from that experience. There is no best way to move forward after losing a life partner, but this book is filled with the stories of Sacks journey interwoven with the experiences and influences of thirteen other strong, sensitive and generous widows. Together they provide a roadmap over the perilous ground of loss and the life that follows.