If you have married young and had a long and happy marriage it is strange and new to be suddenly living alone. It takes a lot of adjusting to. The hardest part is the loneliness. I think the thing I miss most is just the inconsequential chatter...just passing time together and talking about this and that....even just being together and not talking at all. Our deep and meaningful conversations are memorable and etched on my mind and heart so are still with me and therefore not missed so much. One of our favourite pastimes was to go for a walk beside the river after dinner. We would chat and gossip and just be generally good friends. I miss that greatly. I still make a point of walking by the river. Sometimes it is painful. Sometimes I smile at a happy memory. That is the nature of widowhood, I guess.

OK, so here I am writing my first post on Widow Speak. In a few weeks it will be two years since my husband died of cancer after an illness which lasted about a year. Or I should say which we knew about for about a year. I am convinced he had had it for a long time before it was diagnosed. I understand that in its early stages cancer can be lurking a long time before making its presence felt. Anyway, the purpose of this blog is not to be morbid or self pitying but to share a few things I have learned over the past couple of years about what it is like to be widowed, earlier than would be expected. I hope I can pass on some helpful hints and also provide a forum for other widows.