(Following is the first chapter of Bertha’s and my book Grief Recovery 101: How to Get Back Up When Blindsided by the Death of Someone You Love. At the conclusion, we will tell how to order the book.)
CHAPTER ONE: THE GRIEF ARRIVES
Grief happens when you least expect it and are completely unprepared for it.
How I became so knowledgeable about grief. (I sure didn’t volunteer!)
My wife died suddenly.
On a Friday morning in January of 2015, Margaret and I had spent an hour at the breakfast table as we usually did.
After breakfast, she went back to bed. Her physical ailments were always warring against her, the pain was constant, and her energy level was never very high. Even walking into the kitchen was an ordeal for her.
Shortly after finishing my blog, I closed the laptop, took my morning shower and got dressed. Sometime around 10 o’clock, I was lying on the bed in the back bedroom reading a novel when Margaret called down the hall. “I’m going to drive myself to the nail salon and get a pedicure. I’ll be back in a little while.”
My last word to my wife of 52-plus years was, “Okay!”
Sometime around noon, Ochsner Hospital called. “Sir, you need to come to the emergency room now. We have your mother.”
I said, “My wife.”
“Sir, we have your wife. You need to come to the emergency room now.”
That’s all they would say.