Finding moments of joy during the holidays doesn't mean I miss Eric any less. It means I'm learning to make room for both grief and happiness in my life. When your husband dies, even a simple invitation can feel complicated. A friend invites you to dinner. Someone asks you to a party. A couple invites you to spend the holidays with their family. Before your husband died, you might have accepted without giving it much thought. But now you're wondering whether you'll be the only woman there...

Why Grief and the Holidays Can Feel Harder in the Fall Recently, I asked the widows in my online community when they wanted me to start talking about grief and the holidays. Hundreds responded, and their answer was pretty clear: Now. It wasn't even October yet, and women were already thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas. Some were approaching their first holiday season without their husbands. Others had been widowed for years. They talked about Christmas morning, Thanksgiving dinner,...

I wear my wedding ring inside Eric’s on a chain he gave me. I don’t wear them every day, but on days when I especially want him close, I wear them together. If you are looking at your wedding ring and wondering what you are supposed to do with it now that your husband has died, I want you to know something first. You don't have to do anything. You don't have to take it off. You don't have to keep wearing it. You don't have to move it to your right hand or put it away. And you certainly don't...