Book description
What happens to wives when husbands die? The quick answer is widowhood.
The deeper truth is they are forced into a life change that has serious
ramifications for themselves, their families, their friends and their
futures. Are poems and songs written about widow-heroes, does literature
extol their strength and courage, their independence gained, their new
lives discovered? Hardly. But women have important stories to tell about
this time in their lives when they come face to face with one of the
most common and devastating life experiences for women everywhere.
Seventy-nine story tellers have joined together to tell about the tragic
time that begins when, in an instant, the husband dies, the man, the
lover, the companion, the mate is gone--and so is the marriage! SHIRLEY
REESER McNALLY, the originator of this project, is a graduate of Smith
College as are Barbara Harrison Mulhern, Mary Witt Wydman and the
majority of women whose stories are told in this book. Because Smith is
a liberal arts college for women, it seemed logical to McNally that the
alumnae of Smith would be a source and an audience for a study of
widows. It has turned out to be so. “The work,” she says, “has been
arduous, fascinating and redemptive.” The result is intended for current
widows who can learn how others are handling the difficult situation
forced upon them, and for women still married who, with their spouses,
must plan for what well might occur in their futures.
