Reaching Out

This morning I heard about another woman who was widowed this week. She works for the same organization as me and has 3 kids. Her husband died of COVID and I don't have details but I imagine it is a tremendous shock.

Immediately I wanted to reach out to her. I'm only 2 months out and I am so grateful for the people who reached out to me. Some whom I know, some who are strangers. The books, the gifts, the cards. And then I realized that it might help P if we reached out together.

I told him about the family. He has been telling me and his therapist that he feels weird and lonely because other kids have dads. So when there are other kids who are in the same situation as him, I share so he knows he isn't alone. It helps me to know I'm not alone! It helps him too. No one wants to be the only one going through something hard.

He was really excited to be able to help pick out some gifts for the kids. He reminded me that he knows what its like to lose your daddy but I don't (we've talked about this - how I know what it's like to lose my husband and he knows what its like to lose your daddy). He picked out Beanie Boo stuffed animals for them to snuggle with and a big bag of bouncy balls to play with and said that we should send them cards.

It felt good to reach out to someone else.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."

Those verses have been important to me for years. God comforts us to make us comforters, not to make us comfortable. God has comforted me through others (though I am FAR from comfortable!) and today I got to comfort someone else.

We young widows need each other. I hope she feels seen and known and loved.